Remote Raman Laser Spectroscopy for Investigation of Planetary and Other Celestial Bodies

Abstract

Raman Laser Spectroscopy is the science based on scattering of Laser light (Raman scattering) to study molecular fingerprints of materials. In Astronomy, this technique has become a key constituent in molecular identification of minerals of celestial bodies in the past few decades. In this research, Raman data of fifteen minerals from Earth analogues and celestial bodies (Asteroids and meteorites) including tridymite, opal, cristoballite, astrophyllite, forsterite, fayalite, glauberite, monticellite, larnite, kirschsteinite, tephroite, dmisteinbergite, lileyite, pyroxene and schorlomite were collected from RRUFF database and analyzed via the software SciDAVis. The result of Raman Spectra of the corresponding fifteen elements were then analyzed and compared with Open Specy website which gives molecular identification instantly. During our investigation, majority of our Raman spectral peaks matched the reference peaks and some in Open Specy with more than 90% accuracy. The result of our finding also well agreed with the results found by other scholars using Raman spectroscopy and other methods including XRD and chemical analysis.