The U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory said on Tuesday that it has taken the first 3,200-megapixel digital photos, the largest ever taken in a single shot, during a test for the focal plane of a camera in assembling.

The complete focal plane of the camera is more than 2 feet (about 61 centimeters) wide and contains 189 individual sensors, or charge-coupled devices. Each of them can capture a 16-megapixel image, according to a press release.

The images are so large that it would take 378 4K ultra-high-definition TV screens to display one of them in full size. The resolution is so high that one could spot a golf ball from 15 miles (about 24 km) away.

The imaging sensors will be able to spot objects 100 million times dimmer than those visible to the naked eye -- a sensitivity that would let one see a candle from thousands of miles away, the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory said.

After being successfully assembled, the camera will be installed at Rubin Observatory in Chile. The camera will produce panoramic images of the complete Southern sky, collecting images of about 20 billion galaxies in over 10 years. Its data will feed into the Rubin Observatory Legacy Survey of Space and Time.

In the next few months, scientists will insert the cryostat with the focal plane into the camera body and add the world's largest optical lens, a shutter and a filter exchange system for studies of the night sky in different colors. "By mid-2021, the SUV-sized camera will be ready for final testing before it begins its journey to Chile," SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory said in the press release.

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