1 Billion-Pixel GAIA Camera

How big is the image sensor on your camera? 5 megapixels? 8? 16? It hardly matters, because the European Space Agency is about to make you feel very inadequate. It's just flopped out a "1 billion pixel" (that's 1,000 megapixels) imaging device known as Gaia, which will map the Milky Way galaxy in 3D
The European Space Agency Creates 1 Billion-Pixel GAIA Camera
The European Space Agency (ESA) has built an immense digital camera, which comprises 106 snugly-fit charge coupled devices--the largest ever for a space programme.  
Another milestone in the development of GAIA, ESA's ultra-sensitive space astrometry mission, was passed on 1 June when the 106 electronic detectors of its billion pixel camera were assembled like a large mosaic for the first time.
In order to detect distant stars about one million times fainter than the eye can see, GAIA will carry 106 charge coupled devices (CCDs), each of which is, effectively, a miniature camera. These rectangular detectors, each measuring 6 × 4.7 cm, with a thickness of only a few tens of microns, are precisely fitted together on the CCD support structure (CSS). The gap between each CCD(charged coupled devices) package is about 1 millimetre.
Made of silicon carbide, a material that provides remarkable thermal and mechanical stability, the CSS weighs about 20 kg. The overall CCD mosaic is a key part of the complete focal plane assembly.


One billion pixels is actually a tiny bit of an understatement. Gaia's surface combines 106 credit card-size charged coupled devices (CCDs), each the thickness of a human hair. The CCDs, which are effectively "miniature" cameras in their own right, feature 4,500 pixels in the "along scan" direction and 1,966 pixels for "across scan," providing an overall total of around 8,847,000 pixels per CCD.