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How Many Megapixels Is The Hubble Space Telescope
Subjects > Science (Search for Science) > Astronomy (Search for Astronomy)
How many megapixels is the Hubble Space Telescope?
Hold on to your seat. The Hubble Space Telescope was developed in the 1970's to provide at least 15 years of service. The custom built Hubble WF/PC-1 cameras, had custom CCD chips with 800x800 pixels, or a total of 640,000 pixels. So the Hubble doesn't even have the equivalent of a 1 megapixel sensor!
In 1993 the cameras were replaced by the WF-PC-2 cameras that were designed to compensate for small optical flaws in the Hubble Telescope's reflector.
Despite this seemingly low resolution, the pictures from the Hubble have been pieced together to produce mosaics as large as 650 megapixels.
Recent (12/2005) news of a 16megapixel camera being tested on earth based telescopes is very exciting because it has the capability to image an entire galaxy in one picture, instead of requiring dozens of individual pictures to be spliced together. Increased sensitivity of the newest sensors will also help to improve the pictures.
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