A 1.4-gigapixel camera to detect asteroids

MIT engineers have developed silicon chips that will be at the heart of a telescope installed on Haleakala mountain, Maui, Hawaii, which will begin operation next month. The system, called Pan-STARRS (for Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System), is being developed at the University of Hawaii’s Institute for Astronomy. ‘The primary mission of Pan-STARRS is to detect Earth-approaching asteroids and comets that could be dangerous to the planet.’ Apparently, it will be able to give us early warnings about dangerous asteroids and comets. The lead researcher says that they ‘get an image that is 38,000 by 38,000 pixels in size, or about 200 times larger than you get in a high-end consumer digital camera.’ In fact, this telescope will be able to detect ’stars 10 million times fainter than those visible to the naked eye’ and other moving objects near the Earth.