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Gasoline direct injection (GDI) has the potential to greatly improve internal combustion engine performance through precise control of the injection rate, timing, and combustion of the fuel. A thorough characterization of the hydrodynamics of fuel injection has to come from a precise, quantitative analysis of the sprays, especially in the near-nozzle region. A lack of knowledge of the fuel-spray dynamics has severely limited computational modeling of the sprays and design of improved injection systems. Previously, the structure and dynamics of highly transient fuel sprays have never been visualized or reconstructed in three dimensions (3D) due to numerous technical difficulties. By using an ultrafast x-ray detector and intense monochromatic x-ray beams from synchrotron radiation, the fine structures and dynamics of 1-ms GDI fuel sprays from an outwardly opening nozzle were elucidated by a newly developed, ultrafast, microsecond computed microtomography (CT) technique.