The Southern Astrophysical Research (SOAR) telescope, situated atop Cerro Pachón, a mountain in northern Chile, is the first telescope to use a new, more sensitive type of charge-coupled device (CCD).
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Originally Posted by RAHUL RAO, 24 JUL 2024, The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
CCDs have been an electronic staple for decades, especially in very sensitive scientific instruments. But their components create electrical noise that can wash out the most sensitive observations. For astronomers, that noise prevents their instruments from resolving the faintest objects in the night sky, such as distant stars or ancient galaxies. The new type of CCD, known as a skipper CCD, attempts to sift out the noise by changing how the CCD functionally operates.
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A skipper CCD revamps the readout components, allowing it to reduce noise by making multiple measurements of the same pixels. For astronomers, the SOAR Telescope observations—which began in March of this year—are proof of the skipper CCD’s potential. Other researchers are tinkering with skipper CCDs to search for dark matter traces. And skipper CCDs hold immense potential beyond observing the cosmos: Medical imaging, radioisotope detection, and other sorts of delicate image-taking all stand to benefit from the development.
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Story here :-
https://spectrum.ieee.org/charge-coupled-device
Paper at arXiv, "Astronomical Spectroscopy with Skipper CCDs: First Results from a Skipper CCD Focal Plane Prototype at SIFS" by Edgar Marrufo Villalpando et. al. :-
https://arxiv.org/pdf/2406.10756
SOAR telescope in Chile first to use new sensitive skipper CCD's
