加利福尼亞的科學(xué)家們制造了一臺(tái)照相機(jī)來(lái)拍攝大片的天空

加利福尼亞的科學(xué)家們制造了一臺(tái)照相機(jī)來(lái)拍攝大片的天空

Romanesco broccoli, as seen by a 3.2 billion pixel camera. Scientists chose to take a picture of the broccoli because of its fractal shape.

用32億像素的攝像頭拍攝的羅馬花椰菜?？茖W(xué)家之所以選擇給花椰菜拍照，是因?yàn)樗姆中涡螤睢?/p>

Scientists and engineers in California are building a unique camera for a unique telescope.

加利福尼亞的科學(xué)家和工程師們正在為一臺(tái)獨(dú)特的望遠(yuǎn)鏡制造一個(gè)獨(dú)特的照相機(jī)。

The Rubin Observatory telescope going up on Cerro Pachón in north-central Chile can capture an unusually large swath of sky in a single image.

魯賓天文臺(tái)的望遠(yuǎn)鏡在智利中北部的塞羅帕肯上，可以在一張圖片中捕捉到一大片不同尋常的天空。

The camera capable of capturing those images has to be enormous. The one researchers are building at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park, Calif., certainly is.

能夠捕捉到這些圖像的照相機(jī)必須是巨大的。研究人員正在加州門洛帕克的SLAC國(guó)家加速器實(shí)驗(yàn)室里建造的這個(gè)當(dāng)然就是(巨大的)。

"The whole camera is about 13 feet from the front lens to the back where we have all our support equipment, and the 5 feet in diameter--so, massive," says Aaron Roodman, the scientist in charge of assembling and testing the camera.

負(fù)責(zé)組裝和測(cè)試相機(jī)的科學(xué)家亞倫·魯?shù)侣f(shuō)：“整個(gè)相機(jī)從前鏡頭到后鏡頭大約13英尺，我們有所有的輔助設(shè)備都在這里，直徑5英尺，非常大。”。

Inside the camera are lenses, filters, cables, refrigeration equipment, and a focal plane consisting of 189 detectors capable of taking 3.2 billion pixel image. The refrigeration is needed to chill the detectors to their operating temperature of negative 150 degrees Fahrenheit.

相機(jī)內(nèi)部有鏡頭、濾鏡、電纜、制冷設(shè)備和由189個(gè)探測(cè)器組成的焦平面，這些探測(cè)器能夠拍攝32億像素的圖像。需要制冷裝置將探測(cè)器冷卻到零下150華氏度的工作溫度。

It's not a camera you can throw together in your garage. "Oh boy, no, no," Roodman replies. "Definitely not."

它不是一款可以放在車庫(kù)里的相機(jī)。“哦，天哪，不，不，”魯?shù)侣卮稹?ldquo;絕對(duì)不會(huì)。”

When it's fully assembled, a series of lenses will help focus the light from celestial objects. Roodman says he and his colleagues wanted a way to project an image onto the detectors in the focal plane that wouldn't need lenses to be in focus.

當(dāng)它完全組裝好后，一系列的鏡頭將幫助聚焦來(lái)自天體的光線。魯?shù)侣f(shuō)，他和他的同事想找到一種方法，將圖像投射到焦平面的探測(cè)器上，這樣就不需要透鏡聚焦了。

"So I invented a little thing I call a pinhole projector," he says. "Basically a metal box with a tiny pinhole at the top of it, and lights inside the box. "

“所以我發(fā)明了一種叫做針孔投影儀的小東西，”他說(shuō)基本上是一個(gè)頂部有一個(gè)小孔的金屬盒子，盒子里有燈。”

The image of whatever is in the box will be projected into the camera's detectors.

盒子里的物體的圖像將投射到照相機(jī)的探測(cè)器中。

But what to project for a test? They started by putting various images into the projector, including a picture of Vera Rubin, the astronomer after whom the telescope is named.

但是要做什么測(cè)試呢?他們開始將各種圖像放入投影儀中，包括一張維拉·魯賓的照片，望遠(yuǎn)鏡就是以這位天文學(xué)家的名字命名的。

But then they wanted something a bit more optically challenging, so they decided on Brassica oleracea, the kind known as Romanesco broccoli.

但后來(lái)他們又想要一些在光學(xué)上更具挑戰(zhàn)性的東西，于是他們決定選擇甘藍(lán)，也就是羅馬花椰菜。

Why broccoli?

為什么選擇花椰菜?

"Mostly for fun," Roodman says. "It has an interesting fractal structure, and we thought it would look cool, which I think it does."

“主要是為了好玩，”魯?shù)侣f(shuō)。“它有一個(gè)有趣的分形結(jié)構(gòu)，我們認(rèn)為它看起來(lái)會(huì)很酷，我認(rèn)為確實(shí)如此。”

The broccoli picture assured them the detectors were working as intended.

西蘭花的圖片讓他們確信探測(cè)器正在按計(jì)劃工作。

COVID-19 has delayed the completion of the camera.

COVID-19延誤了相機(jī)的完成。

Roodman says they're still hoping to finish it in time to get it to Chile and installed in telescope by the fall of 2022, where it can be used to search the sky for interesting celestial objects.

魯?shù)侣f(shuō)，他們?nèi)匀幌Ｍ芗皶r(shí)完成，并在2022年秋天將其送到智利，安裝在望遠(yuǎn)鏡中，用于在天空中尋找有趣的天體。