Mass Spectrometer
Mass Spectrometer 
Caption: The accelerator mass spectrometer at Purdue University's Rare Isotope Measurement Laboratory separates isotopes of elements that differ only slightly in atomic mass and electric charge, and measures their very small concentrations in a sample. Particles are accelerated in the red chamber and sent along the tube toward the instrumentation at the lower left portion of the photograph. Different isotopes behave differently as the beam travels along the tube and is bent. Isotopic data help establish the age of rocks and rates of geological processes critical to global change research.
