What causes the dark lines in the absorption spectrum of an element to occur?
Photons are absorbed when electrons jump from a lower-energy to a higher-energy state black lines appear when that wave length within the spectrum is absorbed.Absorption of energy can only occur with a specific energy range.The energy range depends on the energy levels of the atom and the energy of the photon depends on the wave length.Thus the energy level used within the absorption is the black line found in your spectrum.Absorption of energy within a atom is electron jumps from a low level to a high level.emitted energy is a quantum of energy emitted depending on the energy difference from a higher level to lower level when an electron from higher to lower level.
