x-ray spectrometer

noun

1. a spectrometer using x-rays to activate the inner electrons of an atom in order to separate and identify the chemical constituents of a substance and their concentrations.

Example Sentences

It took 23 measurements with an instrument called an alpha particle X-ray spectrometer.

From BBC

Michael Tice, an astrobiologist at Texas A&M University, and colleagues used an x-ray spectrometer on the rover’s arm to map how much of the mineral olivine in martian rocks has been altered by water into serpentine.

From Science Magazine

The x-ray spectrometer protrudes over the rover’s front and rotates by 90 degrees to study the material below it.

From Scientific American

The 7-foot-long arm holds such crucial instruments as SHERLOC, which searches for evidence of past microbial life, and the X-ray spectrometer known as PIXL.

From Los Angeles Times

But, he adds, confirming the “ground truth” at Gale Crater requires tools Curiosity lacks, such as a very high-resolution x-ray spectrometer to better assess shifting elemental abundances.

From Scientific American