14 DAY TRIAL // Technology is steadily evolving, devices and gadgets become increasingly smaller and optical resolution gets ever larger. Regular photo cameras now boast impressive 5 megapixel resolution and fantastic zoom-in abilities. Well, impressive until some while ago, that is. Still, in this accelerating age of minimizing size and maximizing capacities, machines are still being built that can leave you in awe. Such is the 1.4 gigapixel resolution telescope called the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS).
Perhaps the name is familiar to those of you who got to read about the need of having our skies monitored for rogue asteroid threats – because that's what the telescope is set to do. The huge apparatus was developed by the technicians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and will help the United Nations come up with sound defense plans in case a large near-Earth object is detected to be on a threatening collision course with the Earth.
The impressive resolution capacity of the telescope is mainly due to the core of its camera, which is comprised by an 8 by 8 array of 8 by 8 cell arrays (the repetition and lousy pun are, of course, intended). The total amount of cell arrays – each of them besting the capacities of any regular camera by far, as it adds as much as a 40 square centimeters wide focal plane – sums 4,096 (8 to the 4th) CCD cells.
The large Pan-STARRS telescope is the last to be built on the archipelago of Hawaii, a place that seems to be rather popular as a suitable location for telescopes. It appears that the area provides one of the best vantage points on the planet, according to astronomers. The project was built as a result of the collaboration between the University of Hawaii Institute for Astronomy, the MIT Lincoln Laboratory, the Maui High Performance Computing Center and the Science Applications International Corporation, and is funded by the US Air Force.