system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
If the valence electrons are in orbitals, what are the non valence electrons doing? Do they have orbitals? What might they look like?

Thanks?
gpt
Yes, they're still in orbitals. Those orbitals look very much like the hydrogenic orbitals one typically sees plotted. Since the core electrons don't participate in bonding, those orbitals also more or less keep that shape whether or not the atom is in a molecule, as opposed to the valence electron orbitals which combine into molecular orbitals on bonding.