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Science Instruments Spacecraft designed to carryout scientific missions are typically equipped with a large complement of science instruments. Examples are: (a) Dust Detector – Which detects velocity, mass, number of dust particles striking the instruments. (b) Photometer – An optical instrument that measures the intensity of light from a source. (c) Magnetometer - A device for measuring the strength and direction of the interplanetary and solar magnetic fields. They typically detect the strength of magnetic fields in three planes. (d) Plasma wave detector - A device for measuring the electrostatic and electromagnetic components of plasma waves in three dimensions. (e) Spectrometer - An optical instrument that splits the light received from an object into its component wavelengths then measures the amplitudes of the individual wavelengths. | ||