For the first time, scientists have captured a process central to photosynthesis, when water is split into hydrogen and oxygen.

The research team published their work in the journal Nature and recorded still frames of a complex process called photosystem II, according to a press release. For their study, the international team of scientists used the world's strongest X-ray flashlight to capture the still frames.

To get photosynthesis started, the team developed nano-crystals of the photosystem II bacteria. Then they needed to observe the process in which water splits into hydrogen and oxygen, so the team lit the crystals with a laser to simulate sunlight.

"The water splitting process is known to be divided into four steps," study Co-author Henry Chapman, a professor at the University of Hamburg and a member of the Hamburg Center for Ultrafast Imaging, said in the release. "But no-one has actually seen these four steps."

The team released quick, intense blasts from the laser and captured the watter-splitting process thanks to an exposure time of 30 femtoseconds (quadrillionths of a second).

"We were surprised by the large conformational changes we could witness," study researcher Petra Fromme, of Arizona State University, said in the release. "Actually, the changes are so large that there is an overall structure change, which even changes the dimensions of the unit cell, the smallest building block in a crystal.

"This is the very first scene of a molecular movie showing light-driven water splitting in photosystem II, the mechanism which makes all oxygen in the atmosphere."

The research team proved a way to make a movie of sorts detailing the processes of photosynthesis at a molecular level. The next step will be to generate a sharper image.

"Our study also proves that molecular movies of biochemical processes are possible with a X-ray Free-Electron Laser," Chapman said. "Such a movie can reveal the ultrafast dynamics of chemical reactions.

"But we still need to get to higher resolution first."