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Originally Posted by Tim Thompson
But they don't create the thermal spectrum, rather they allow the spectrum to remain thermal, since it was already thermal at the base of the photosphere.
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But what it was below this layer is quite irrelevant-- thermalizing opacity will thermalize that which is thermal and that which isn't just as easily, within limits of course. It still has to cool its temperature, after all.
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Besides, the solar spectrum is only approximately thermal, since we are seeing emission simultaneousy from all parts of the photosphere, which are at different temperatures. That's why the sun us said to have an effective temperature of about 5700 Kelvins.
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Yes, every concept in thermodynamics, as in all physics, is really just an approximation. It just depends on how deeply one chooses to delve and what level of accuracy is desired!