drag2share: MIT builds camera that can capture at the speed of light (video)

Source: http://www.engadget.com/2011/12/13/dnp-mit-builds-camera-that-can-capture-at-the-speed-of-light-vi/

A team from the MIT media lab has created a camera with a "shutter speed" of one trillion exposures per second -- enabling it to record light itself traveling from one point to another. Using a heavily modified Streak Tube (which is normally used to intensify photons into electron streams), the team could snap a single image of a laser as it passed through a soda bottle. In order to create the slow-motion film in the video we've got after the break, the team had to replicate the experiment hundreds of times. The stop-motion footage shows how light bounces through the bottle, collecting inside the opaque cap before dispersing. The revolutionary snapper may have a fast shutter but the long time it takes to process the images have earned it the nickname of the "the world's slowest fastest camera."

[Image courtesy of MIT / M. Scott Brauer]

Continue reading MIT builds camera that can capture at the speed of light (video)

MIT builds camera that can capture at the speed of light (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 13 Dec 2011 06:33:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink The New York Times  |  MIT  | Email this | Comments

---
drag2share - drag and drop RSS news items on your email contacts to share (click SEE DEMO)