Indian-origin scientist leads high-speed camera project in UK

An Indian-origin scientist in the UK is leading a new high-speed space camera project that is expected to revolutionise our understanding of stars and black holes.

Professor Vik Dhillon and his team at University of Sheffield in the UK were joined by experts from around the world on the HiPERCAM project, which involves the creation of a new camera that can take more than 1,000 images per second.

The camera went live on the world's largest optical telescope, Gran Telescopio Canarias (GTC), this week.

It will take high-speed images of objects in the universe, allowing their rapid brightness variations due to phenomena such as eclipses and explosions to be studied in unprecedented detail.

"The combination of HiPERCAM and the world's largest telescope provides us with a unique, new view of the universe, which history tells us is when major new discoveries are made. Astronomers are excited to use HiPERCAM on the GTC to start exploring the Universe at high speed," said Dhillon, Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Sheffield and Affiliated Researcher at the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias (IAC).

"Normal cameras installed on large telescopes usually capture only one picture every few minutes. HiPERCAM can take one picture every millisecond. The high speed essentially provides a slow-motion view of rapidly varying celestial objects," he added.

"The high-speed images are also captured in five different colours simultaneously, which means we can instantly tell the difference between hot stars which are burning at tens of thousands of degrees Celsius and are blue in colour - and cooler stars, which appear red and are burning at only a few thousand degrees."
"It is projects such as these, and collaboration with partners and universities from across the world, which underpins our ambitious modern Industrial Strategy to boost innovation and help create a Britain fit for the future."