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The NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory team loading the LSST Camera on a transport cart for testing in February 2025. Courtesy Rubin Observatory/NOIRLab/SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory.

After scientists at Menlo Park’s SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory spent over two decades developing and constructing a car-sized camera, it has now been installed at the new, nearly complete Vera C. Rubin Observatory in the Coquimbo Region of Chile. 

The observatory, jointly funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation and the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, will use the 3,200-megapixel “Legacy Survey of Space and Time” camera to take new, higher-quality images of the night sky. Weighing over 6,500 pounds with a 5.5-foot diameter lens, it is the largest digital camera ever constructed, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.  […]

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Eleanor Raab joined The Almanac in 2024 as the Menlo Park and Atherton reporter. She grew up in Menlo Park, and previously worked in public affairs for a local government agency. Eleanor holds a bachelor’s...