Researchers from Washington University claim to have developed the world's fastest camera that can capture a mind-boggling 100 billion frames per second.

The team describes their camera as the world's fastest 2D receive-only camera. The camera uses a technique called "Compressed Ultrafast Photography (CUP)" to reach this incredible speed.

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This ultrafast camera is so fast it can take a photo of a photon of light in flight and convert it into a 2D image using a computer.

This is the first time humans can see light pulses using this kind of photography, said Lihong Wang from Washington University.

The world's fastest camera is apparently a derivative of a streak camera that uses a microscope or telescope paired with special lenses to capture an event. Streak cameras, however, can only capture light in a singular dimension.

Using CUP but expanding this into 2D space allowed researchers to add parts and computer algorithms that convert the streak camera's raw data into an actual 2D images on a computer. This method is known as computational imaging.

CUP can improve research in biomedicine, forensics and even astronomy, says Wang.

In astronomy, for example, this technology can allow scientists to better study cosmic events such as supernovas in detail or even track the path of potentially dangerous space debris that might hit the Earth.

Wang also said CUP imaging can also help the Hubble telescope obtain the sharpest spatial resolution to discover new objects in space. 

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