The most sophisticated and expensive purity testing method involves the use of x-ray spectrometry.

Nash’s team then pulverized half of the Phillips core and ran it through a gantlet of chemical analyses that return a much higher resolution signature than x-ray spectrometry can provide.

In its short active time Philae managed to operate all of its science instruments—it analyzed the chemical makeup of gas around the comet, captured x-ray spectrometry, imaged the surface and measured temperature and magnetic properties there, among other accomplishments.

And not only do you want to read every word, but you find yourself relishing terms such as dendrochronology, Raman microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry.