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Prof. Sanford Asher's UV Raman Spectroscopy research is now on Mars as a component of SHERLOC (Scanning Habitable Environments with Raman & Luminescence for Organics and Chemicals), which is attached to the Perseverance rover.

March 4, 2021 - 2:55pm

Pittwire highlights Prof. Sanford Asher's research in the article, "Chemist's Tech Makes it to Mars." 

Sanford Asher has spent his career studying UV Raman spectroscopy, which uses ultraviolet light to excite molecules and determine the basic components of matter. Now, he’s using it to look for life on Mars. Prof. Asher is a coinvestigator on the SHERLOC instrument built at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The instrument determines the chemical composition of rocks on the surface of Mars and looks for particular molecules that are suggestive of the existence of life. 

Read more of the article.