The dynamics of methionine geminate recombination following photodissociation in ferrous cytochrome c is investigated over a broad temperature range. The kinetic response, above the solvent glass transition (T-g), is nearly monoexponential and displays a weak temperature dependence. Below T-g, the rebinding kinetics are nonexponential and can be explained using a quenched distribution of enthalpic rebinding barriers, arising from a relatively narrow distribution of heme out-of-plane displacements. The Arrhenius prefactor of this (Delta S = 2) reaction is similar to 10(11) s(-1), which is similar to what has been found for the (Delta S = 1) NO binding reaction in heme proteins. This observation, along with other examples of ultrafast CO binding, provides strong evidence that ligand binding to heme is an adiabatic reaction with a spin independent prefactor. In order to simultaneously account for the adiabatic nature of the reaction as well as the temperature dependence of both ultrafast CO and methionine geminate rebinding, it is proposed that a spin triplet state intersects and strongly couples to the reactant (S = 2) and product (S = 0) state surfaces in the transition state region along the reaction coordinate. It is also suggested that the nature of the intersecting triplet state and the reaction path may depend upon the proximity of the photolyzed ligand relative to the iron atom. At temperatures below similar to 60 K, the kinetic data suggest that there is either an unexpected retardation of the heme photoproduct relaxation or that heavy atom quantum mechanical tunneling becomes significant.