Emission (electromagnetic radiation)

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In physics, emission is the process by which the energy of a photon is released by another entity, for example, by an atom whose electrons make a transition between two electronic energy levels. The photon is created in the process. The emission of light during wave propagation is often called radiation.

The emittance of an object quantifies how much light is emitted by it. This may be related to other properties of the object through the Stefan-Boltzmann law.

For most substances, the amount of emission varies with the temperature and the spectroscopic composition of the object, leading to the appearance of color temperature and emission lines. Precise measurements at many wavelengths allow the identification of a substance via emission spectroscopy.