The spectra of an element is called its fingerprint because they're all different. More specifically, it's their electron configuration when coming out of the excited state into the ground state.
Once a certain amount of energy is absorbed by an element, an electron can jump up a shell. This is called the excited state. It's very unstable in this state and can't stay this way for very long. When it goes back to the ground state, energy is released in the form of light. This pattern of light released is unique to each element and is called a spectra.
Example: 2-8-8 (ground state) 2-8-7-1 (excited state)
Enrichment: Helium was named after Helios, the Greek sun god. A redshift is when light seen is shifted to the red end of the spectrum. Sir Edwin Hubble created Hubbles law, which states all objects observed in space are found to have a wave length shift that correlates with earth.
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