| how fluorescence works because it's pretty cool. When the ultraviolet light shines on the rocks, it is causing the electrons of the rock's atoms to jump to an even higher energy state. This higher energy state isn't stable, so the electron quickly returns to it's original state and when it does, the energy that it gained and then lost from making the transition is emitted as a photon which is in the frequency of the color we see in the photo. The different types of elements in the rocks will have their electrons making different sized jumps from the others and the difference is what makes the different colors (smaller jumps are on the red side of the spectrum and larger ones are on the blue side). |