The world's biggest ever digital camera is up and running. The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope camera was installed in an observatory in Chile earlier this week. Astronomers will now start testing it. They will observe the southern hemisphere skies over the next decade. The U.S. government called the camera "a triumph of science and engineering". It added: "We look forward to seeing the unprecedented images this camera will produce."

The camera is the size of a car. It weighs 2,721 kg. It has a huge 3-billion-pixel sensor. It will take time-lapse images. A researcher said: "We're going to make a colour movie of the entire Southern Hemisphere sky." He hopes the images will shed light on how galaxies formed. He will also investigate dark matter – the invisible substance that makes up a lot of the universe. In addition, he will use the camera to map our Milky Way galaxy.