The camera is located in the Vera C Rubin Observatory on Cerro Pachón mountain in the Andes mountain range in Chile. The researchers promise that the camera will change our view of the universe.
Among other things, the camera will discover during its first year whether there is a ninth planet in Earth's solar system. It will also image the entire Milky Way and provide decisive answers about dark matter, which makes up a large part of the universe and is still surrounded by many questions.
Every third day during a ten-year period, the camera will photograph the sky every 40 seconds for 8 to 12 hours per night. The camera will also alert the researchers if something changes in the images.
According to researcher Elana Urbach, one of the goals of the observatory is to "understand the history of the universe" by seeing faint galaxies and supernovae that occurred "billions of years ago".
So we really need very sharp images, she says.
The camera has a unique design with three different mirrors. The telescope has a mirror of 8.4 meters that reflects into a second mirror of 3.4 meters, to then reach the last one of 4.8 meters which finally reaches the camera.
