{"dataset":{"slug":"scientific-instruments","title":"Scientific Instruments","description":"Scientific instruments and payloads across missions and telescopes.","version":"1.0.0","lastGenerated":"2026-06-29","license":"CC BY-SA 4.0","entityCount":33,"sources":["nasa","esa"]},"entities":[{"id":"scientific_instrument:acs","name":"Advanced Camera for Surveys","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The Advanced Camera for Surveys is a wide-field Hubble camera that produced many of the telescope's deepest survey images.","entryPath":"/observatories/acs"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:alice-nh","name":"Alice (New Horizons UV Spectrometer)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"New Horizons's ultraviolet imaging spectrometer, which probed the composition and structure of Pluto's atmosphere as the spacecraft flew through its shadow.","entryPath":"/instruments/alice-nh"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:cassini-cda","name":"Cassini Cosmic Dust 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flybys.","entryPath":"/instruments/cassini-magnetometer"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:cassini-rss","name":"Cassini Radio Science Subsystem (RSS)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"Cassini's radio-science experiment, which used the spacecraft's radio link — tracking tiny frequency shifts and radio occultations — to weigh Saturn, map its gravity field, and probe the structure of its rings and atmosphere.","entryPath":"/instruments/cassini-rss"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:chemcam","name":"ChemCam","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The laser spectrometer on Curiosity that analyses Martian rock chemistry from a distance.","entryPath":"/exploration/chemcam"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:cos","name":"Cosmic Origins Spectrograph","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The Cosmic Origins Spectrograph studies the ultraviolet light of faint sources to probe the gas between galaxies.","entryPath":"/observatories/cos"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:dawn-framing-camera","name":"Dawn Framing Camera","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"Dawn's camera, which mapped the giant asteroid Vesta and the dwarf planet Ceres, including the bright carbonate deposits of Ceres's Occator crater.","entryPath":"/instruments/dawn-framing-camera"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:galileo-nims","name":"Galileo Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (NIMS)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"Galileo's imaging spectrometer, which mapped the composition of Jupiter's moons and found evidence for salts and a subsurface ocean on Europa.","entryPath":"/instruments/galileo-nims"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:hires","name":"HIRES","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"HIRES on Keck I is a high-resolution optical spectrograph used in many exoplanet discoveries and studies of distant galaxies.","entryPath":"/observatories/hires"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:juno-microwave-radiometer","name":"Juno Microwave Radiometer (MWR)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The instrument on Juno that peers beneath Jupiter's cloud tops to map its deep atmosphere.","entryPath":"/exploration/juno-microwave-radiometer"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:junocam","name":"JunoCam","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"Juno's wide-angle visible-light camera, included partly for public engagement, which has returned spectacular images of Jupiter's turbulent poles and cloud bands.","entryPath":"/instruments/junocam"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:lorri","name":"LORRI (Long Range Reconnaissance Imager)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"New Horizons's high-resolution narrow-angle telescope camera, which returned the first detailed images of Pluto and the Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth.","entryPath":"/instruments/lorri"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:magellan-sar","name":"Magellan Synthetic Aperture Radar","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"Magellan's imaging radar, which pierced Venus's thick clouds to map 98% of the planet's surface at high resolution.","entryPath":"/instruments/magellan-sar"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:mastcam-z","name":"Mastcam-Z","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"A mast-mounted, zoomable stereo camera system on the Perseverance rover.","entryPath":"/exploration/mastcam-z"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:messenger-mla","name":"Mercury Laser Altimeter (MLA)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"MESSENGER's laser altimeter, which measured the topography of Mercury's northern hemisphere and helped confirm water ice in its permanently shadowed polar craters.","entryPath":"/instruments/messenger-mla"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:messenger-grns","name":"MESSENGER Gamma-Ray & Neutron Spectrometer","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"MESSENGER's spectrometer, which measured the elemental composition of Mercury's surface and helped confirm water ice in its permanently shadowed polar craters.","entryPath":"/instruments/messenger-grns"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:miri","name":"MIRI","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The Mid-Infrared Instrument on JWST, sensitive to cool, dusty, and distant objects.","entryPath":"/exploration/miri"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:moxie","name":"MOXIE","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"An experiment on Perseverance that demonstrated making oxygen from the Martian atmosphere.","entryPath":"/exploration/moxie"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:muse","name":"MUSE","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"MUSE on the VLT records a spectrum at every point in its field of view, mapping the motions and composition of galaxies.","entryPath":"/observatories/muse"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:nircam","name":"NIRCam","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The primary near-infrared imager of the James Webb Space Telescope.","entryPath":"/exploration/nircam"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:niriss","name":"NIRISS","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"NIRISS, contributed by the Canadian Space Agency, provides JWST with slitless spectroscopy and high-contrast imaging.","entryPath":"/observatories/niriss"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:nirspec","name":"NIRSpec","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"The near-infrared spectrograph on JWST, used to probe exoplanet atmospheres and early galaxies.","entryPath":"/exploration/nirspec"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:ocams","name":"OCAMS (OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"OSIRIS-REx's camera suite, which mapped the asteroid Bennu in detail and documented the touch-and-go sample collection.","entryPath":"/instruments/ocams"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:sam","name":"Sample Analysis at Mars (SAM)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"Curiosity's onboard chemistry laboratory, which detected organic molecules and methane on Mars.","entryPath":"/exploration/sam"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:insight-seis","name":"SEIS (Seismic Experiment for Interior Structure)","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"InSight's ultra-sensitive seismometer, which detected hundreds of marsquakes and, for the first time, revealed the internal structure of Mars.","entryPath":"/instruments/insight-seis"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:stis","name":"Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"STIS is a versatile Hubble spectrograph used for everything from exoplanet atmospheres to black-hole masses.","entryPath":"/observatories/stis"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:sphere","name":"SPHERE","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"SPHERE on the VLT is an extreme adaptive-optics instrument that directly images exoplanets and circumstellar discs.","entryPath":"/observatories/sphere"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:supercam","name":"SuperCam","type":"scientific_instrument","domain":"science","description":"An instrument on Perseverance that vaporises rock at a distance with a laser to analyse its composition.","entryPath":"/exploration/supercam"},{"id":"scientific_instrument:voyager-crs","name":"Voyager Cosmic Ray Subsystem 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