Mosaic Plate Assembly (MPA)The MPA holds the detector array mosaic, the heart of the Wide Field Instrument (WFI). It consists of 18 highly-sensitive large-format detectors arranged into an arch-shaped mosaic. Each detector contains more than 16 million pixels that collect visible and infrared light emitted by astronomical sources. These devices will convert the light they collect into electrical signals, which will then be decoded into enormous images. Combined, the 18 detectors in the array comprise a wide-field imaging camera with more than 300 million pixels. The detectors operate cold, at -288 degrees Fahrenheit (-178 degrees Celsius), to reduce electronic noise and thermal backgrounds. The detector array mosaic will enable the WFI to perform deep surveys of large portions of the sky to study dark energy, exoplanets, and more.
