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Super telescope's giant camera spies broccoli
The camera detector for the Vera Rubin Observatory takes its first test images in the laboratory.
Science & Tech
How do you test the new sensor for the world's largest digital camera? You take a picture of broccoli, of course.
This might sound bizarre but the intricate shapes found in the Romanesco version of this plant are a good check that you're capturing lots of detail.
And for the camera that's to be fitted to the Vera Rubin Observatory in Chile - performance is everything.
This 3.2 gigapixel device is going to help unlock some of the key outstanding questions in astronomy.
Who knows? It might even get us closer to understanding those cosmic head-scratchers "dark energy" and "dark matter" which appear to be controlling the evolution of so much of what we see when we look up.