The Effects of Molecules on the Structure of Stellar Atmospheres

Abstract

Spectra from cool stars are dominated by lines from different molecules. The effects of these molecular lines on the structure of the atmospheres are discussed. The structure is demonstrated as being often severely dependent on the element abundances due to the effects of the molecules, and in some cases the data adopted for the molecules are very crucial. This implies that careful abundance analysis of carbon stars, for example, is complicated.