Fourier Spectrometer PFS The Planetary Fourier Spectrometer (PFS) orbiting Mars on ESA
s Mars Express works by breaking down light into a spectrum of individual wavelengths, in the same way that a glass prism converts white sunlight into a rainbow of its component colours. Instead of the light we see, PFS is built to study a range of radiation from short wavelength infrared just beyond the threshold of the human eye up to longer infrared – which is the heat radiation we feel with the nerve endings in our skin. PFS covers the widest infrared range of any instrument ever to orbit Mars or the Earth. with astronomyconradexpressfouriermarsorbitplanetaryspacecraft