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The NASA Curiosity Rover Exploring Mars Carries a Number of Scientific

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Essay

The NASA Curiosity rover exploring Mars carries a number of scientific instruments, including a spectrograph (a device for recording a spectrum), and a high intensity laser. On several occasions, Curiosity has fired its laser at the surface of a rock sample, while observing the process with a spectroscope. The laser is intense enough to vaporize the atoms on the surface of the sample into a hot, excited gas.
Why is this a useful technique for the rover to employ?


Definitions:

Scientific Method

A systematic and empirical approach to research in which a problem is identified, relevant data are gathered, a hypothesis is formulated from these data, and the hypothesis is empirically tested.

Theory

A system of ideas intended to explain something, based on general principles independent of the thing to be explained.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction or explanation about a phenomenon that acts as a basis for further investigation.

Psychoanalytic Approach

A theory of psychology introduced by Sigmund Freud that emphasizes unconscious processes and childhood experiences as determinants of psychological development and issues.

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