Continuous (in the @[email protected], not time sense) @[email protected] arising for example from non-quantized free-free transitions of electrons in the fields of the ions, free-bound transitions or radiative recombinations of electrons and ions, incandescent radiation emitted by hot solids (when the radiation distribution conforms to that described by Planck's law, it is considered black-body radiation) and unresolvable @[email protected], i.e. where the spectral lines are wider than the spacings between them.