Gaia mission charge coupled device
- Made:
- c. 2013
Charge coupled device designed for 1.5 gigapixel camera for the Gaia mission to create a three dimensional map of the Milky Way galaxy
This Charge Coupled Plane (CCD) is one of 106 individual CCDs that makes up the focal plane of the Gaia mission. Launched in 2013, Gaia’s ambition is to build the largest and most detailed three-dimensional map of our Galaxy. This CCD will help to survey almost two billion objects.
Remarkably, each Gaia CCD contains nearly 9 million pixels and contains a Supplementary Buried Channel (SBC), which is rare in astronomical CCDs, and an Anti-Blooming Drain (ABD), which is unique in astronomical CCDs. These features make this CCD one of, if not the most, complicated ever made.
Details
- Category:
- Space Technology
- Object Number:
- L2007-4039
- Materials:
- metal (unknown), silicon, copper (metal) and glass
- Measurements:
-
overall: 80 mm x 120 mm x 70 mm, 1.3kg
- type:
- spacecraft, detectors and charge coupled devices (ccds)
- credit:
- Teledyne Technologies
