Our galaxy is a big place. Scientists say that if the sun were the size of a period on a page, the Milky Way would be the size of the continental United States. That being said, if you went to the edge of our galaxy with a DSLR camera featuring Sony’s upcoming 12.47-megapixel sensor, you’d be able to take a picture of Earth and the detail would be so fine that you’d be able to see your house.

While that might be stretching it a bit, the new 12.47-megapixel CMOS sensor “features a high signal conversion speed (in all-pixel scan mode) of 10.39 frame/s (12 bit)” and will pass images to a camera’s processing circuits with minimal noise and/or artifacts.

If anybody was wondering, I have a 2.1-megapixel Casio Exilim that allows me to print out slightly above-average 4×6 photos. This new sensor probably isn’t for me. Any professional photogs out there care to comment?

Sony Producing 12.47 Megapixel Sensor for D-SLR [DailyTech]