Question

What is an atomic orbital?

Answer 1

Orbitals and orbits

When a planet moves around the sun, you can plot a definite path for it which is called an orbit. A simple view of the atom looks similar and you may have pictured the electrons as orbiting around the nucleus. The truth is different, and electrons in fact inhabit regions of space known as orbitals.

Orbits and orbitals sound similar, but they have quite different meanings. It is essential that you understand the difference between them.

Answer 2

Atomic orbitals are the quantum states of the individual electrons in the electron cloud around a single atom.

Specifically, atomic orbitals are the quantum states of the individual electrons in the electron cloud around a single atom.

Classically, the electrons were thought to orbit the atomic nucleus, much like the planets around the Sun (or more accurately, a moth orbiting very quickly around a lamp).

However electrons cannot be described as solid particles (as a planet or a moth), so a more accurate comparison would be that of a (huge) atmosphere (the spatially distributed electron) around a (tiny) planet (the nucleus).