World's largest digital camera turns on, can spot a golf ball on the surface of the Moon

The world's largest digital camera has been switched on and begun capturing images, and each of these images measures a staggering 61,440 x 51,200 in resolution.

The newly functional world's largest digital camera is located at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory, on the El Peñón peak of Cerro Pachón, approximately 8,799 ft up a mountain in the Chilean Andes. The camera has been operational for 10 hours, and since it began snapping photos of the galaxy above, it has discovered 2,104 new asteroids in the solar system.

The camera weighs a staggering three tonnes and features a ridiculous 3,200 megapixel sensor. It is capable of capturing feverishly high-resolution images so high-resolution that if the camera were pointed at the Moon, it would be able to snap an image and see a golf ball on the surface. The first pictures released by scientists operating the capture show 10 million galaxies, which is a small start as it covers just 0.05% of the camera's overall goal to map out 20 billion galaxies through taking regular survey images.

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"Building the world's largest digital camera will allow scientists to explore the cosmos in new ways and at a scale that will enable discoveries that should fundamentally change our understanding of the universe," said Aaron Roodman, deputy director of the Rubin Construction

"The NSF-DOE Rubin Observatory will capture more information about our Universe than all previous optical telescopes in history combined. Through this remarkable scientific facility, we'll explore many cosmic mysteries-including dark matter and dark energy that pervade the Universe," remarked Brian Stone, acting director of the camera called the NFS-DOE