'Sonic Booms' - Shock Waves: Ultrafast Photography or LLE-CUP Superfast Streak Camera Captures Cone-Shaped Wakes of Light

By Staff Reporter, | February 04, 2017

Sonic Boom

Sonic Boom

"Sonic Booms" are shock waves, which are created when an object moves at super speed generating super loud sounds like claps of thunder. As the object moves at supersonic speeds, cone - shaped wakes of light are created. A superfast streak camera, the LLE-CUP, which was invented by researchers has captured this phenomenon for the first time.

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In a report by LiveScience, the technology behind "Sonic Booms" is likened to an aircraft that flies in the air and as it moves very fast like the speed of sound it would thrust the air in front. The movement creates pressure waves that scatters the sound in all directions. However, the sonic booms are locked up or confined in the conical regions that are extended to the rear end of the supersonic flying object.

Similarly, light can create conical wakes of light like the "Sonic Booms" and this was captured by the superstreak camera. According to Smithsonian, like super sonic sound, light can produce photonic Mach cone or cone-shaped wakes. The researchers at Washington University were able to record their observation using the ultrafast camera known as the lossless-encoding compressed ultrafast photography or LLE-CUP.


The LLE-CUP is capable to capture 100 billion frames per second of a single exposure, hence the capability to take superfast events. For the first time in the history of advancements in photography, "Sonic Booms" created by the laser had been taken by the device. This technology breakthrough is the gateway to a new innovation applicable to medical science, even the study of the human brain.

The team of researchers declared that the LLE-CUP are very fast that can even be used to capture the neurons fire and image live traffic in the brain. With "Sonic Booms" it would be possible to understand how the brain will function.


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