Editing Spectral line (section)

==== Thermal Doppler broadening ====
{{Main|Doppler broadening}}
The atoms in a gas which are emitting radiation will have a distribution of velocities. Each photon emitted will be "red"- or "blue"-shifted by the [[Doppler effect]] depending on the velocity of the atom relative to the observer. The higher the temperature of the gas, the wider the distribution of velocities in the gas. Since the spectral line is a combination of all of the emitted radiation, the higher the temperature of the gas, the broader the spectral line emitted from that gas. This broadening effect is described by a [[Gaussian function|Gaussian profile]] and there is no associated shift.