The big picture: US space scientists build world’s largest digital camera

The camera also has many more pixels than conventional cameras, further enhancing its images. A smartphone camera has about 20 million pixels. This camera has 3.2 billion. — Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

MENLO PARK: The universe is about to get its biggest close-up ever.

The most powerful digital camera ever built, now being assembled at SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory at Stanford University, will create a vast panorama of space by taking snapshots of 20 billion galaxies – more than twice as many as there are people on Earth.