![in phase combination of atomic orbitals in phase combination of atomic orbitals](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D6Km_C1HpbU/hqdefault.jpg)
![in phase combination of atomic orbitals in phase combination of atomic orbitals](https://www.guyhowto.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/27_2-Head-on-Approach-300x194.jpg)
Molecular orbitals are formed by the addition or subtraction of overlapping atomic orbitals.The molecules are formed by the linear combination of the atomic orbitals.The number of atomic orbitals combined is always the same as the number of molecular orbitals formed.Once these molecular orbitals are formed, the atoms which combined to give these orbitals are lost. According to the molecular orbital theory, all the atomic orbitals of combining atoms first combine to form a new set of orbitals.
![in phase combination of atomic orbitals in phase combination of atomic orbitals](https://i.stack.imgur.com/PN2NA.png)
The prominent features of the molecular orbital theory are as follows.