The world's largest ever digital camera

 

The world's largest ever digital camera has become operational in an observatory in Chile. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope camera was funded by U.S. government agencies. The enormous device was installed in the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the South American nation. Astronomers will now commence a period of testing. They will use the camera to observe the southern hemisphere skies over the next decade. The Department of Energy's Office of Science commented on how momentous the completion of the telescope was. It called the camera "a triumph of science and engineering". It added: "We look forward to seeing the unprecedented images this camera will produce."

The camera is the size of a small car and weighs 2,721 kg. It has a massive 3-billion-pixel sensor. In comparison, today's top-of-the-range smartphone cameras have 200 million pixels. Astronomers will repeatedly scan the sky to take time-lapse images of space. Lead researcher Aaron Roodman said: "We like to say that we're going to make a colour movie of the entire Southern Hemisphere sky." In particular, he hopes to capture images that will shed light on how galaxies formed. Roodman's team will also investigate dark matter – the invisible substance that makes up a significant portion of the universe. In addition, the camera will map our Milky Way galaxy in greater detail than ever before.

Scientists have developed a tiny camera that can be put on the back of a beetle. The camera can record where the bug goes. This will give the scientists a bug's-eye view of the world. The researchers want to use the camera to explore places never seen before. Researcher Vikram Iyer explained why the camera could be useful. He said: "Insects can traverse rocky environments, which is really challenging for robots to do at this scale. So this system can also help us out by letting us see or collect samples from hard-to-navigate spaces." Mr Iyer is excited to see what the cameras record. He said: "This is the first time that we've had a first-person view from the back of a beetle while it's walking around."

The scientists are from the University of Washington in the USA. They wanted to develop a camera light enough for bugs to wear. It weighs just 250 milligrams. Their wireless camera records images at up to five frames per second. A researcher said: "We have created a low-power, low-weight, wireless camera system that can capture a first-person view of what's happening from an actual live insect." He said one of the biggest challenges when making the camera was the battery. It had to be very small and very light, with enough power to last a few hours. The researchers stressed that no beetles were hurt in their tests and that all the insects "lived for at least a year" after the experiments finished.

1. SCIENCE: What do you know about these sciences? How important are they? Complete this table with your partner(s). Change partners often and share what you wrote.

	What I Know	Their Importance
Astronomy
Physics
Biology
Chemistry
Geology
Meteorology

 

2. Tech: In whay ways have these technologies transformed our lives? How was civilization before their invention?

	Transformative	What We Did Before
The Printing Press (1400)
The Telegraph (1835)
The Remote Control (1898)
The Airplane (1903)
The Computer (1938)
3 D Printing Automobile Computer The Internet (1969)

 

3.Vocabulary

    Paragraph 1

1.	observatory	a.	Given money to help pay for something.
2.	funded	b.	One half of the Earth or another round object.
3.	commence	c.	Never happened before.
4.	hemisphere	d.	To start something.
5.	momentous	e.	A great win or success.
6.	triumph	f.	A special building where people look at the stars and planets.
7.	unprecedented	g.	Very important.

    Paragraph 2

8.	sensor	h.	The best and most expensive of its kind.
9.	top-of-the-range	i.	To explain or help people understand something.
10.	shed light on	j.	To make a picture or plan of a place or area.
11.	dark matter	k.	A type of material or thing, like water or metal
12.	substance	l.	A special kind of substance in space that people cannot see.
13.	portion	m.	A small device that can detect things like heat, light, or movement.
14.	map (verb)	n.	A part of something.

 

    Paragraph 3

1.	developed	a.	Travel across or through.
2.	view	b.	The full range of different levels of people or things, from lowest to highest.
3.	explore	c.	Created something new.
4.	traverse	d.	Travel on a desired course after planning a route.
5.	scale	e.	A sight of something that can be seen by the eye from a particular place.
6.	sample	f.	Travel in or through an unfamiliar country or area in order to learn about it.
7.	navigate	g.	A small part or quantity of something to show what the whole thing is like.

    Paragraph 4

8.	weigh	h.	Not less than.
9.	frame	i.	Find out how heavy or light someone or something is.
10.	capture	j.	A single, complete picture in a series forming a movie, television, or video film.
11.	challenge	k.	A container of cells, in which chemical energy is changed into electricity and used as a source of power.
12.	battery	l.	A task or situation that tests someone's abilities.
13.	last	m.	Record in words or pictures.
14.	at least	n.	Continue to function well or to be in good condition for a set length of time.

4. SYNONYM MATCH A: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. operational
2. funded
3. device
4. commence
5. momentous
6. massive
7. top-of-the-range
8. entire
9. portion
10. map

1. best
2. gadget
3. enormous
4. important
5. chart
6. up and running
7. percentage
8. financed
9. whole
10. start

  5. SYNONYM MATCH B: Match the following synonyms from the article.

1. developed
2. explore
3. traverse
4. challenging
5. view
6. wear
7. images
8. capture
9. actual
10. experiments

1. cross
2. catch
3. perspective
4. put on
5. tests
6. travel through
7. real
8. invented
9. pictures
10. difficult

6. If you love photography and cameras, then you are familiar with some of these cameras on the list . They are seen as game changers in the field. Why were they so important:

·         Daguerreotype (1839)

·         The Kodak (1888)

·         Kodak Brownie (1900)

·         Graflex Speed Graphic (1912)

·         Leica I (1925)

·         Kine Exakta I (1936)

·         Hasselblad 1600F (1948)

·         Leica M3 (1954)

·         Nikon F (1959)

·         Canon AE-1 (1976)

·         Kodak DCS 100 (1992)

Click on the link if you would like to see how they look like :

https://petapixel.com/2023/09/30/cameras-that-changed-photography-forever/

Discussion 

1. What did you think when you read the headline?
2. What images are in your mind when you hear the word 'digital'?
3. What do you think of digital cameras?
4. What do you think of the huge digital camera in the article?
5. How important is it to explore space?
6. What do you want to know about our universe?
7. Are skies different in the southern and northern hemispheres?
8. What do you think is a triumph of science?
9. What do you think is a triumph of engineering?
10. What images do you look forward to seeing?

11. Did you like reading this article? Why/not?
12. What do you think of when you hear the word 'camera'?
13. What do you think about what you read?
14. Is a digital or film camera best?
15. How many pixels does your camera have?
16. What do you like taking photos of?
17. How important is it to have a good camera?
18. What do you know about dark matter?
19. What do you know about the Milky Way?