Billion-pixel camera set to snap Milky Way shots

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The European Space Agency says it has completed what it calls the largest digital camera ever built for a space mission - a one billion pixel array camera that will help create a three-dimensional picture of the Milky Way Galaxy.

During its five-year mission, the spacecraft spins slowly, sweeping the two telescopes across the entire celestial sphere. As the detectors repeatedly measure the position of each celestial object, they will detect any changes in the object’s motion through space.

I don't think this is a point & shoot

Very interesting! We are in Perth and the people who will be managing the data communication side of things for this mission just gave a talk to us on Tuesday!

That's mind-boggling! How do they do that?

martyn_bannister wrote in post #12718019
That's mind-boggling! How do they do that?

Very big, foldable mirrors!

martyn_bannister wrote in post #12718019
That's mind-boggling! How do they do that?

Image analysis of all their stars should be manage that. With the large number of visible stars, image analysis should be able to compute the angle with a resolution way better than the size of the individual pixels.