: an instrument used for measuring wavelengths of light spectra
2
: any of various analytical instruments in which an emission (as of particles or radiation) is dispersed according to some property (such as mass or energy) of the emission and the amount of dispersion is measured
Recent Examples on the WebIn New York, for instance, the public health department bought a spectrometer that can not only identify whether fentanyl is present in a substance but also estimate how much. Lev Facher, STAT, 11 Sep. 2022 The other is set to bring a mass spectrometer and a drill called PRIME-1 that will extract and sample lunar ice from the south pole region. Rebecca Boyle, Scientific American, 28 July 2022 Rice chemistry professor Robert Curl and others noticed surprise readings on the spectrometer: evidence of 60 carbon atoms bonding together, possibly in a hollow cluster shaped something like a soccer ball. Brian Murphy, BostonGlobe.com, 9 July 2022 The spectrometer breaks apart the molecules of organic compounds and sorts them by size. Katie Jennings, Forbes, 15 Apr. 2022 While the mass spectrometer isn’t new, Wing, Redmond and Verbeck have patented the process by which the breath is collected, known as the pre-concentrator stage. Katie Jennings, Forbes, 15 Apr. 2022 This platform holds the mission's scientific instruments, including color and black-and-white cameras, a thermometer, and an infrared imaging spectrometer. Ashley Strickland, CNN, 20 Oct. 2021 The lab's latest tool is Boreas, a laser spectrometer designed to collect and analyze methane—a greenhouse gas emitted by dozens of human activities, from agriculture to burning fuel. Rachael Pells, Wired, 3 Jan. 2022 The team also ran a subset of the beers through a second type of mass spectrometer, and Schmitt-Kopplin says combining these processes let the researchers identify more than 7,000 unique ions never before found in beer. Maddie Bender, Scientific American, 18 Oct. 2021 See More