Capturing the speed of light

MIT Researchers capture the speed of light on camera.

Able to take a trillion frames per second, this camera, developed by researchers at MIT, is capable of capturing light travelling from one point to the next.

Is it the world's fastest camera? Well, it's actually described by its creators as 'the world's slowest fastest camera'.

As it can only record in two dimensions and only one of these is spatial (the other is time). The scene must be captured from a number of angles to build up a multidimensional, moving image. This means that, although the timescales being captured are on a phenomenally small scale, the time it takes to actually capture all the necessary data can be as much as an hour.

The camera allows researchers to analyse how light scatters, with applications in material analysis and medical imaging.

Watch some additional test footage from the camera here and here.

[20/12/11 Editors note - There seems to be considerable controversy over the validity or way in which this 'camera' operates, you might be interested in following ongoing discussion here]