Light enters a spectrometer through an input slit or is captured by an optical fiber or fiber bundle, where it is then dispersed according to its wavelength. The spectrometer separates light into its component wavelengths and measures the intensity of light at each wavelength, allowing identification of the colors present in the original light source. This process can be used to analyze the spectral properties of light from various samples in applications such as materials analysis, chemistry, astronomy, and more.