Megamaser be very different from those that produce galactic water masers. Observations of water megamasers have been used to make accurate measurements of distances to galaxies in order to provide constraints on the Hubble constant. The word maser derives from the acronym MASER, which stands for "Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation". The maser is a predecessor to lasers, which operate at optical wavelengths, and is named by the replacement of "microwave" with "light". Given a system of atoms or molecules, each with different energy states, an atom or molecule may absorb a photon and move to a higher energy
Sound amplification by stimulated emission of radiation energy of the lattice can take discrete values for every excitation. Every one of this "excitation packages" is called phonon. An electron does not stay in an excited state for too long. It readily releases energy to return to its stable low energy state. The electrons release energy in any random direction and at any time (after their excitation). At some particular times, some electrons get excited while others lose energy in a way that the average energy of system is the lowest possible. By pumping energy into the system we can achieve a population inversion. This means that there