Final answer:
An emission of a photon with higher energy occurs when an electron transitions from a higher to a lower energy level, releasing energy as a photon. This process, which is the basis of fluorescence, allows the electron to emit a photon whose energy reflects the energy difference between the two levels.
Step-by-step explanation:
When considering what happens during a transition that results in the emission of a photon with higher energy, the correct answer is that the electron moves to a lower energy level. This gives us that option 2) is the correct choice. During an electronic transition in an atom, if an electron falls from a higher energy level to a lower energy level, energy is released in the form of a photon. This photon's energy correlates with the difference in energy between the two energy levels. The greater the difference in energy levels, the higher the energy of the emitted photon. For example, if an electron in a hydrogen atom transitions from energy level 3 to energy level 2, the emitted photon's energy will correspond to the difference in energy between these two levels.
In the case of fluorescence, electrons move from a high energy level to a lower one in one or more steps, emitting photons that correspond to each transition. If an electron moves directly from a high energy state to the ground state, as in the option b) where the electron transitions directly down from level 8 to level 1, it reflects a typical fluorescence transition, emitting light of a particular color or wavelength.