Back to today’s briefing

Story perspectives

Revolutionary Chip to Accelerate Star Spectral Data Collection

10/23/2025

39 4

Summary

Story summary

Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University have developed RAFAEL, a compact spectroscopic chip with high resolution and panoramic spectral imaging.
The chip is the size of a SIM card and can capture spectral data for about 10,000 stars per second.
This could shrink Milky Way spectral data collection from thousands of years to under a decade as deployment proceeds on large telescopes in Hebei, Yunnan, and the Canary Islands.

1 of 1

Story summary

Chinese researchers from Tsinghua University have developed RAFAEL, a compact spectroscopic chip with high resolution and panoramic spectral imaging.
The chip is the size of a SIM card and can capture spectral data for about 10,000 stars per second.
This could shrink Milky Way spectral data collection from thousands of years to under a decade as deployment proceeds on large telescopes in Hebei, Yunnan, and the Canary Islands.