Answer:
They are all paired together. It is in an excited state and releases energy.
Explanation:
Before I answer this question, I think you need a basic understanding of orbital configuration and how everything there works.
Oxygen's electron configuration is 1s2 2s2 2p4, where the 1s2 and 2s2 blocks are completely filled, and the 2p4 block is only partially filled (4 electrons distributed into 3 boxes). For some reason this page won't let me add a picture, but please google "orbital configuration of oxygen" and it will come up in the images section.
However in this case, if the 3 boxes of the 2p corresponded to the letters x, y, and z, you would find that the x and y boxes are completely filled (2px2 2py2).
This shows that there are no unpaired electrons in the 3 boxes, because all 4 electron are pushed into the 2px2 and 2py2 box.
This is different from the regular, non-excited state of oxygen, where 2px is filled, 2py has one electron, and 2pz also has one electron (written as 2px2 2py1 2pz1).
From this, we can see that this is in an excited state because the 2py2 box has two electrons, different from the 2px2 2py1 2pz1, where the electrons are each in their own box. Because it is different, it is in an excited state.
You probably know that in an excited state, energy is released because the electron emits a photon when it goes back to its ground state.
