Question

According to MO theory, what does the overlap of two s atomic orbitals produce?

Answer 1

It makes one `sigma_(ns)` and one `sigma_(ns)^"*"` molecular orbital (MO). These are known as bonding and antibonding MOs, respectively.

A simple depiction of these MOs is in an MO diagram:

And a depiction of `ns` sigma bonding and `np` pi bonding is:

Answer 2

The overlap of 2 atomic orbitals produces molecular orbitals

Explanation:

The 2 MO are the bonding and the antibonding molecular orbitals