The European space agency ESA has developed a camera that take pictures with a resolution of one billion pixels or 1000 megapixels. This is a structure built with 106 ccd image sensors, in addition to a large number of mirrors.
The ruimtecamera need to light can absorb a million times fainter than the human eye can register. The camera must be a billion stars in the picture will put in the framework of the space mission Gaia, which are parts of the universe. The stars in the Milky way, but also in neighboring galaxies. Despite the large number of stars on the photo, the camera will only one percent of all stars in the Milky way can capture. The mission begins in 2013 and will take five years. According to the ESA, it is the largest camera ever built for use in the aerospace industry.
In addition to a structure with 106 ccd’s get the ruimtecamera a number of large mirrors built in. The light passes through two telescopes, and ends up by reflection, ultimately, on the ccd’s. The ccd-structure covers an area of 0.5 by 1 metres, where the individual ccd’s 4.7 cm by 6cm measure and are thinner than a human hair. Between the ccd’s is less than a millimeter. 102 ccd’s are used for image capture, while the remaining four are intended for stabilisation and the maintenance of the image quality. It all works in the space at a temperature of -110 degrees Celsius.