The Vera C Rubin Observatory in Chile has released the first images taken using its 3,200-megapixel digital camera, the largest ever built for astronomy.
A joint initiative of the US National Science Foundation and Department of Energy, the $810m facility is located on top of Cerro Pachón in the Andes in central Chile.
The observatory features an advanced 8.4-metre telescope equipped with the enormous digital camera, enabling it to scan large swaths of sky with high sensitivity and in a short time.
To put this in perspective, each image is so detailed that it would take hundreds of ultra-high-definition TV screens to display it in full.
The camera features enormous filters that allow through different types of light, from ultraviolet to near-infrared.
The telescope will later this year embark on its flagship project, the Legacy Survey of Space and Time. This will capture a time-lapse record of the universe with hundreds of images of the southern hemisphere sky taken every night for 10 years...