When it comes to our world, our Solar System, and everything we can see in our Universe, it's all made up of the same ingredients: atoms. Electrons and atomic nuclei interact and link up to form not ...

Researchers have uncovered how atoms subtly rearrange themselves for up to a trillionth of a second before releasing ...

Not content with protons and atomic nuclei, physicists took a new kind of particle for a spin around the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. On July 25, the Large Hadron Collider, located at ...

When most of us picture an atom, we think about a small nucleus made of protons and neutrons orbited by one or more electrons. We view these electrons as point-like while rapidly orbiting the nucleus.

Everything in our universe is made up of atoms, from the human body to the air we breathe. Based on existing theoretical models, a unit contains three smaller subatomic particles, namely protons, ...

A: Immediately (much less than a second) after the Big Bang, the universe was both too hot and too dense for elements to form. Hydrogen didn’t appear until the universe had spread out — and ...

Particle accelerator technology has crested a new wave. For the first time, scientists have shown that electrons can gain energy by surfing waves kicked up by protons shot through plasma. In the ...

You can feasibly put anything inside the world’s largest physics experiment, CERN’s Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, so long as it can be vaporized. You could even stick a sandwich in there. But ...

If you hit an atom’s nucleus hard enough, it will fall apart. But exactly how it falls apart tells us something about the internal structure of the nucleus and perhaps about the interior of neutron ...

Most of an atom is empty space, so why does some matter feel solid? Two physics principles explain why. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it ...

Luckily, we don't have to count them one by one. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. All matter in the universe — no matter how big, ...