Hybrid quadrupole-Orbitrap-Astral mass spectrometer

The Thermo Fisher Scientific Orbitrap Astral mass spectrometer contains three mass analyzers: a quadrupole for precursor ion selection, an Orbitrap analyzer for high dynamic range HRAM spectra, and the Astral analyzer for high-sensitivity HRAM spectra at rates up to 200 Hz. Astral and Orbitrap acquisition are synchronized, supporting high resolution data-independent acquisition (HR-DIA), data-dependent acquisition (DDA) for identification and label-free quantitation, and TMTpro™ 18-plex multiplexed quantification.

UWPR install date: 8/15/2024

Specifications

Specification Value
MS/MS scan rate, Astral analyzer up to 200 Hz at 80,000 resolution (m/z 524), max injection time 3 ms
MS/MS scan rate, Orbitrap analyzer up to 40 Hz at 7,500 resolution (m/z 200)
Resolution, Astral analyzer up to 80,000 FWHM at m/z 524 (resolves TMTpro™ 18-plex reporter ions)
Resolution, Orbitrap analyzer up to 480,000 FWHM at m/z 200
Mass accuracy, Astral < 5 ppm RMS drift over 24 h, external calibration
Mass accuracy, Orbitrap < 3 ppm RMS drift over 24 h external; < 1 ppm internal calibration
Dynamic range, Orbitrap > 5,000 within a single spectrum
Dynamic range, Astral > 1,000 within a single microscan spectrum

Features

  • Higher Energy Collisional Dissociation (HCD)
  • EASY-IC™ (internal calibration) source
  • Quadrupole mass filter
  • Ion Routing Multipole (IRM) trapping, focuses and routes ions more effectively
  • Orbitrap mass analyzer
  • Astral (Asymmetric Track Lossless) mass analyzer
  • Extensive pre-built method templates for data-dependent acquisition (DDA), data-independent acquisition (DIA), TMT, and SureQuant for multiple application areas including plasma and single cell proteomics

Resolving Power and Transient Length

Here is a full table of the available resolution settings. Note: higher resolution does not always result in better mass accuracy. It increases your ability to distinguish between m/z ions, and always trades against scan time. On the Astral’s Orbitrap analyzer the settings range from 7,500 (about 40 Hz) up to 480,000 (about 0.7 Hz). To take full advantage of parallel fill and detect, balance the maximum fill times against the transient length.

Orbitrap Analyzer

Res. at m/z 200 Transient length [ms] Scan speed [Hz]
7,500 16 40
15,000 32 22
30,000 64 12
45,000 96 10
60,000 128 7
120,000 256 3
240,000 512 1.5
480,000 1024 0.7

Astral Mass Analyzer

Res. at m/z 524 Max. Inject. Time [ms] Scan speed [Hz]
Up to 80,000 2.5 200
Up to 80,000 20 25
Up to 80,000 40 12.5

HeLa Digest Concentration Curve

Different concentrations of Pierce HeLa Protein Digest Standard (10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90, 100, 200, 300, 400, 500 ng) were injected and separated with a 6-35% Buffer B (80% ACN) gradient over 60 min Peptides were identified with our standard DDA method and search tools.