The largest photo of the known universe weighs two million gigabytes
Jan 1, 2017
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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I guess this can be described as the universe’s biggest selfie…
Over 4 years the Pan-STARRS1 (The Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System) have been taking photos of the skies from its location on a desolated, dormant volcano in Maui, Hawaii. Those four years (and half a million exposures) of data collection resulted in a huge single image (and database) which is over two million gigabyte big.
In fact the image is so big, that if printed at full res, it would be 2.4 miles wide, and show about three billion stars. How’s that for a selfie?!
STARRS1 is not the biggest telescope in the world, but it has the strongest astronomical camera. The camera built into the telescope is has 1.5 billion pixels compared to 10 million on a “typical camera”. Combine that with half a million exposures, 45 seconds each and you can start grasping the magnitude of the project. Oh, did I mention that each shot was captured 12 times, in 5 different wavelengths?
The university of Hawaii released the following information:
The Pan-STARRS1 Surveys allow anyone to access millions of images and use the database and catalogs containing precision measurements of billions of stars and galaxies,” said Ken Chambers, director of the Pan-STARRS Observatories. “Pan-STARRS has made discoveries from Near Earth Objects and Kuiper Belt Objects in the Solar System to lonely planets between the stars; it has mapped the dust in three dimensions in our galaxy and found new streams of stars; and it has found new kinds of exploding stars and distant quasars in the early universe.”
Here is a short movie describing what it means to have a two million gigabyte database
Udi Tirosh
Udi Tirosh is an entrepreneur, photography inventor, journalist, educator, and writer based in Israel. With over 25 years of experience in the photo-video industry, Udi has built and sold several photography-related brands. Udi has a double degree in mass media communications and computer science.
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28 responses to “The largest photo of the known universe weighs two million gigabytes”
Weighs? Since when is gigabyte a measure of weight?
When you have to carry the hard drive that the photo is recorded on from one place to another.
You can convert information (in bits) to energy through the Maxwell’s Demon Constant (which isn’t really a constant, since it depends on temperature). This constant is equal to kT ln(2), and thus:
E = kT ln(2) J (1)
where E is the energy [joules], k is Boltzmann’s constant [joules/kelvin], T is the temperature [kelvin], and J is the amount of information [bits]. This corresponds to the minimum amount of energy required to destroy J bits of information (thanks Brian Bi for the correction).
Then, by Einstein’s famous mass-energy equivalent:
E = mc² (2)
where E is energy as before, m is the mass [kilograms] and c is the speed of light [metres per second].
Thus, using (1) and (2), we can say:
m = (kT ln(2) / c²) J (3)
Note that the constant (kT ln(2) / c²) is really small – at room temperature (298 K), it’s 4.6 × 10^(−38) kilograms per bit!
So, using that equivalent, a gigabyte (8×10^9 bits) has a mass of 3.7×10^(−28) kg. This is about 400 times the mass of the electron, or about 22% the mass of the proton.
Chapeau!
I would think that a bit represents a ‘state’, rather than an expression of either mass or energy. I could be wrong (although I’ve only been wrong twice in my entire life, and the second incident was a judgment call).
In space, no one is wrong. – God
How is it a selfie?
You’ve read all that and that’s all you have to question?
Or we can go about using words improperly and never call anyone out for it.
See where we all end up.
Exactly! Why does every picture need to be described as a selfie?
So… i could print it on an A4, that being said, i could also print a 32x32p picture of a mountain on a football field sized canvas… in theory atleast. You need to be more precise. Also, storage space isnt measured in weight so it doesnt “weigh” anything. The weight of the storage depends on the technology used, if we’re talking about practise. Be more precise with your articles in the future. Bullshit makes people stupid.
I think the writer’s use of the term ‘weight’ is facetious, illustrating the enormity of the file.
I think your usage of the term ‘facetious’ is facetious, llustrating the triviality of life itself.
Sorry you feel that your life is trivial.
All life is trivial, including yours, with the exception of my dog.
I don’t think you’re qualified to make a judgment on anyone else’s life but your own.
As your God, I must disagree with you.
I’ve met my God. He’s a lot better looking and smarter than you. Nice try, though.
Your false-God sounds human, what a pity.
… but without the sarcasm and condescension.
You mean like where you inferred that I feel my life is trivial because you’re a humorless twat?
If you want to project your feelings of inadequacies outward with petty sniping, then there’s not much anyone can do about it. You have completely misjudged me- I am a witty and jovial twat. And I seem have a proclivity for attracting other twats into my life, too. Welcome.
Accepting twat into your life is the first step towards salvation.
You flatter me with your attentions. You’re obviously a brilliant academic. Wouldn’t your time be better spent by squaring the hypotenuses of the homeless, or factoring someone’s polynomial when their spouse is out of town? Your talents are being squandered. Fly, fly away from here, Little Twat brethren, and grace someone worthier with your munificent and scintillating acumen.
Look, as your Gawd – I’m too busy watching to make sure you don’t improperly spill your seed to have time for that other stuff.
Your interval for clever repartee has long expired. Move on.
Dammit, Maric – you spilled your seed again last night. Repent.
“We” are the universe. We took the picture. That makes it a picture of ourselves that we took ourselves.