/sci/ - Science & Math

>>15943910
When the electron releases a photon of energy it releases it in a completely random direction. So 360 degrees by 360 degrees random sphere. When an element absorbs a photon of light it must absorb the exact color of light needed to promote but when it releases that energy it can be several different colors in any random direction.

Now onto the sun.

Everything. Absolutely everything in the universe emits light. So long as it's made of baryonic matter it emits light. You. Grass. Your nintendo controller. The Sun. Tickle Me Elmo. Doesn't matter. Everything emits light. We can only see it if it's released in visible light but it still emits light.

When things emit light it's dependent on what it's made of and what temperature it's at. Imagine an electric stove. When you turn it on it heats up, first red hot, then blue hot, then white hot if you had a crazy powerful electric stove. If something were made of pure black matter (and nothing in the universe is pure black matter) it would emit light in what's called a blackbody radiation curve. Stars are close. They emit light in pretty close to true blackbody radiation curves. Because of this we know the temperature of the sun. We know the temperature of every star in the universe we can see because of this.