The Slow Mo Guys capture the speed of light at 10 trillion frames per second
Shreeaa Rathi | TIMESOFINDIA.COM | Aug 01, 2025, 21:23 IST
( Image credit : TIL Creatives )
In a groundbreaking project at the California Institute of Technology, YouTube sensations The Slow Mo Guys captured the astonishing speed of light using cutting-edge technology, recording an incredible ten trillion frames per second. Their mesmerizing footage reveals light traversing a bottle in mere picoseconds, leaving viewers in awe of this scientific marvel.
YouTubers The Slow Mo Guys, Gavin Free and Daniel Gruchy, filmed at 10,000,000,000,000 frames per second to capture the speed of light on camera, an event recorded with special equipment at the California Institute of Technology, and later enhanced by superimposing the bottle, showcasing light passing through it in 2,000 picoseconds of footage, which left viewers amazed and thankful to witness such a feat.
The Slow Mo Guys have a YouTube channel dedicated to filming things in incredibly slow motion.
Over the years, they’ve recorded everything from popcorn machines to flame throwers.
Their most impressive stunt was managing to capture the speed of light on camera.
The global premium auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie reported on this achievement.
After years of recording all kinds of things in slow motion, The Slow Mo Guys wanted to set themselves a challenge.
They set out to record the ‘fastest thing known to man’: the speed of light, which travels at 186,000 miles per second.
In order to get the speed of light on camera, the pair required some special equipment, which they got their hands on at the California Institute of Technology.
To capture something so fast, they had to use a special camera that was able to record a mind-blowing 10 trillion frames per second.
Although used to filming in slow motion, the pair said this camera was 20 million times faster than their usual one.
To ensure they got their recording, the pair enlisted the help of postdoctoral scholar Peng Wang from the Compressed Ultrafast Photography department.
The incredible clip shows light passing through a bottle in 2,000 picoseconds of footage.
Interestingly, the specially designed camera only captures light, so the bottle you see in the clip was actually superimposed later on.
“I would say it was actually one of the most mind-blowing things that we’ve seen,” Dan said at the end of the clip.
Viewers expressed their amazement in the comments.
“When I graduated with my physics degree, I never imagined I would live to see the day humanity could accomplish this,” one viewer said.
“The fact that nowadays I can just casually sit in my kitchen and watch how light moves blows my mind and makes me thankful to live in this era,” another said.
Separately, a group of scientists recently ‘froze’ light for the first time.
The group of scientists turned pure light into a supersolid for the first time.
A supersolid is a state of matter that becomes a solid crystalline structure, but also flows without resistance, which is a superfluid property.
“We actually made light into a solid. That’s pretty awesome,” Italy’s National Research Council member Dimitris Trypogeorgos told New Scientist.
Claire Reid, a journalist from the UK now living in New Zealand, reported on these events.
She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites.
Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.
The Slow Mo Guys have a YouTube channel dedicated to filming things in incredibly slow motion.
Over the years, they’ve recorded everything from popcorn machines to flame throwers.
Their most impressive stunt was managing to capture the speed of light on camera.
The global premium auction platform powered by Supercar Blondie reported on this achievement.
After years of recording all kinds of things in slow motion, The Slow Mo Guys wanted to set themselves a challenge.
They set out to record the ‘fastest thing known to man’: the speed of light, which travels at 186,000 miles per second.
In order to get the speed of light on camera, the pair required some special equipment, which they got their hands on at the California Institute of Technology.
To capture something so fast, they had to use a special camera that was able to record a mind-blowing 10 trillion frames per second.
Although used to filming in slow motion, the pair said this camera was 20 million times faster than their usual one.
To ensure they got their recording, the pair enlisted the help of postdoctoral scholar Peng Wang from the Compressed Ultrafast Photography department.
The incredible clip shows light passing through a bottle in 2,000 picoseconds of footage.
Interestingly, the specially designed camera only captures light, so the bottle you see in the clip was actually superimposed later on.
“I would say it was actually one of the most mind-blowing things that we’ve seen,” Dan said at the end of the clip.
Viewers expressed their amazement in the comments.
“When I graduated with my physics degree, I never imagined I would live to see the day humanity could accomplish this,” one viewer said.
“The fact that nowadays I can just casually sit in my kitchen and watch how light moves blows my mind and makes me thankful to live in this era,” another said.
Separately, a group of scientists recently ‘froze’ light for the first time.
The group of scientists turned pure light into a supersolid for the first time.
A supersolid is a state of matter that becomes a solid crystalline structure, but also flows without resistance, which is a superfluid property.
“We actually made light into a solid. That’s pretty awesome,” Italy’s National Research Council member Dimitris Trypogeorgos told New Scientist.
Claire Reid, a journalist from the UK now living in New Zealand, reported on these events.
She began her career after graduating with a degree in Journalism from Liverpool John Moore’s University and has more than a decade of experience, writing for both local newspapers and national news sites.
Claire covers a wide variety of topics, with a special focus on cars, technology, planes, cryptocurrency, and luxury.