Match Heads Igniting at 4,000 FPS Look Like Dying Alien Worlds

It's usually over in an instant, but when you capture macro footage of a match head igniting at 4,000 frames per second, suddenly that almost instantaneous event becomes a fascinating look into the science of fire and ignition. And believe it or not, YouTuber UltraSlo had to throw an additional 2,000 watts of light on this match head to capture this mesmerizing footage—that's a lot of birthday candles.

It was totally worth it.

[YouTube via BoingBoing]