An Italian-made space camera captured the most astonishing images of the biggest cosmic explosion ever recorded.
The University of Bologna's TORTORA camera caught the gamma ray burst from a dying star at a remarkable exposure speed of 7/100ths of a second, the fastest ever.
TORTORA, built with help from the Russian Academy of Science, ''caught the first groans when the star collapsed into a Black Hole, emitting the burst,'' said Adriano Guarnieri, head of the Italian-Russian team.
TORTORA's snapshots, along with those from satellites and telescopes, will be published Thursday in the international scientific journal Nature.
The gamma ray burst about 7.5 billion light years from Earth, which took place in March, also set a new record as the farthest cosmic event visible to the naked eye.
