10 high-tech gadgets you didn’t know about set a world record

A lens larger than 5 feet, six specialized filters, a whopping 6,000 pounds of weight, over two decades of hard work. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) camera not only holds the record for the highest resolution digital camera in the world – it is also the largest digital camera ever built, with the largest optical lens and largest sensor. One giant stone, four birds. The camera was built to collect data for a decade at a rate of 15 terabytes per night while placed stationary atop the observatory.

It has a 3,200-megapixel sensor, a 9.6-square-degree field of view, a 64-centimeter-wide focal plane, 15-second exposure intervals, and a total of 189 charge-coupled device sensors. If all these numbers are giving you a headache, here’s a little context to help. From 2024, the highest resolution camera in a smartphone will be just 200 megapixels, which is only 6% of the LSST resolution. Over its 10-year lifespan, it is expected to observe 37 billion stars and galaxies, covering more space than ever before. Next up has to be a personal visit from an alien or two, right? Yoda would be pretty cool.