Superconducting camera (SCAM)

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The superconducting camera, SCAM, is an ultra fast photon counting camera, developed by the ESA. It is cooled to just 300 thousandths of a degree above absolute zero. This enables its sensitive electronic detectors, known as superconducting tunnel detectors, to register almost every single photon of light that falls into it.

Its advantage over a CCD (charge-coupled device) is that it can measure both the brightness (energy) and the colour (wavelength) of a photon.

References

• European Space Agency: ESA's new camera will revolutionise the way astronomers observe the Universe