how do you study the elements from the moon rocks?

Question: how do you study the elements from the moon rocks?
- Keywords:
  element,
  moon,
  rock,
  study
Asked by anon-245299 to Samantha on 9 Mar 2020.
- Samantha Faircloth answered on 9 Mar 2020:
  
  First of all, the Moon rocks are sliced into very thin sections. This is done at NASA in the USA. I put these sections in my scientific instruments at the Open University and at Diamond Light Source. The main instruments I have used to study the rock section samples use charged atoms (atoms that are slightly negatively or slightly positively charged) which are fired at the samples (think of a laser!) and release some elements from the section (I’m interested in sulfur and chlorine) which reach a large detector for me to measure. The other method I have used, involves firing X-rays (similar to those used in hospitals) at my samples which are absorbed by the samples and allow me to measure ‘signatures’ of sulphur (there are different types of sulphur that exist in the samples I measure).

Question: how do you study the elements from the moon rocks?