PICTURE OF A CAULIFLOWER COULD HELP US UNRAVEL THE MYSTERIES OF THE UNIVERSE

La photo d'un chou-fleur pourrait nous aider à élucider les mystères de l'Univers

La photo de ce chou-fleur est le plus grand cliché jamais pris. L'appareil photo ayant immortalisé ce végétal pourrait, d'ici quelques années, nous permettre d'explorer l'univers et de découvrir d'autres galaxies. Mais comment ? Réponse avec les scientifiques du Rubin Observatory Project...

The world’s biggest photograph – of a cauliflower – could help humanity unravel some of the universe's deepest mysteries. The image of a romanesco is the biggest picture ever taken in one single shot, made up of 3.2 billion pixels. It is so large that it would need 378 4K TV screens to show it at full size, and has such a high resolution that a golf ball would be visible from 15 miles away.

2. The focal plane – capturing light and turning it into electrical signals – is not only notable for its high quality. The pixels themselves are also incredibly small, and can capture objects 100 million times darker than those visible to the Milky Way.

3. For now, that immense power has been chosen to photograph vegetables, along with other test subjects. But eventually it will be used to peer deep into the universe, creating the “largest astronomical movie of all time” and helping to unravel mysteries such as dark matter and dark energy.

THE BIGGEST CAMERA EVER MADE

4. The sensors that took the images are going to be integrated into the biggest digital camera ever made, which in turn will eventually be installed at the centre of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory in Chile. Once there, it will create panoramic images of the complete southern sky. Every few nights, it will complete a detailed panorama of the whole sky, for a period of 10 years.

5. Those images will then be pieced together and will become a catalogue of more galaxies than there are people on Earth, as well as the motions of various astrophysical objects as they move through space. Cosmologists will be able to use that detailed information to gain a better understanding of those objects than ever before.

6. The vegetable image was taken to test the focal plane, which was built in January. “This achievement is among the most significant of the entire Rubin Observatory Project,” said Steven Kahn, director of the observatory. “This will enable Rubin Observatory to deliver nextgeneration astronomical science.”

7. The creation of the focal plane saw engineers place 25 rafts, in narrow slots, into a grid that will make up the sensor. The gaps between the sensors are just five human hairs wide and the rafts can crack if they touch – which could be devastating, given each raft can cost up to $3m.

8. They chose to photograph objects including the romanesco, an engraving, and the team itself – the vegetable was chosen because of the fine detail of its structure.

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screen écran / kind genre / dark obscurité, noir.

2. century siècle / spill déversement, flux / ceaselessly sans relâche, continuellement / to stand, stood, stood in a queue faire la queue, patienter / device appareil électronique (téléphone) / waist taille / height hauteur / wrist poignet / to retain garder / quiet ici, secret / eventually ici, un jour / to wear, wore, worn porter (sur soi) / specs = spectacles lunettes / to land ici, apparaître, être annoncé/publié / startling ici, qui interpelle/choque / else ici, sinon / to register ici, être considéré, compter.

3. to coin inventer / in the mid- au milieu des années... / to occur survenir / set groupe /

academic universitaire, expert / amount quantité, volume / input apport de données, informations / processing (de) traitement / wave vague / to reach atteindre.

4. to find, found, found ici, montrer, révéler / to take, took, taken in absorber, intégrer / to identify ici, déceler, révéler / attention span capacité de concentration / to shrink, shrank, shrunk diminuer / both ici, à la fois.

5. to co-found cofonder /

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