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When white light falls on and is then reflected off the surface or atmosphere of a planet, the elements and compounds on the surface and in the atmosphere of the planet modify the reflected light (e.g. they may absorb some of it).

Thus if you spread out the light reflected by the planet using a spectrometer attached to a telescope, you can see how the light has been modified and by analyzing the pattern of the modifications observed infer the elements and compounds on the planet or in its atmosphere that caused this.

This tells you what is in that planets atmosphere.

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17y ago

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