[mac227]

Ok so in class we looked at four different unidentified gases with a spectrometer.  We took notes of what we saw and were able to identify which type of element it was by comparing our observed spectra with a table of given emmission spectra and their respective elements.  My question is why exactly to the gases emit different emmision spectra.  I understand that each element has different ionization energies, so when we turn on a neon lamp, the electricity and heat excites the eletrons into higher states and some electrons are given off as photons of emmitted.  And these emission photons are different colors for each gas because each element has different ionization energies--so the photons are emitted with different amount of energies which is why they are different colors.  Is this correct?

[Borek]

It is not only ionization, excited electrons can jump to higher orbitals and later jump back to their original places, without leaving atom. These orbitals have specific, characteristic energies, just like ionization energy is characteristic of an atom of a given element.

So yes, you are right, but there is more to it.