Florin Andrei
11-25-2008, 10:47 AM
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/21705/?a=f
The first of four new asteroid-tracking telescopes will come online next month in Hawaii, promising to quickly scan large swaths of the sky--thanks to the world's largest digital camera.
The project, known as the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), aims to scan the entire sky visible from the summit of Mount Haleakala in Maui Island, Hawaii, three times a month, searching for asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs) as small as 300 meters in diameter. At the heart of each telescope is a 1.4-billion-pixel digital camera that can photograph broad swaths of the night sky in sharp detail.
The first of four new asteroid-tracking telescopes will come online next month in Hawaii, promising to quickly scan large swaths of the sky--thanks to the world's largest digital camera.
The project, known as the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS), aims to scan the entire sky visible from the summit of Mount Haleakala in Maui Island, Hawaii, three times a month, searching for asteroids and near-Earth objects (NEOs) as small as 300 meters in diameter. At the heart of each telescope is a 1.4-billion-pixel digital camera that can photograph broad swaths of the night sky in sharp detail.