A part of Rutherford’s scattering experiments, this particular experiment involved shooting alpha particles at a piece of gold foil with the source, foil, and detector placed in a vacuum vessel.

Physicists got their first look at the structure of the atomic nucleus. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works. The Geiger-Marsden ...

Henri Becquerel discovered that uranium gives off invisible rays that affected photographic film in 1896. The Curies built upon his work, named the phenomenon radioactivity and were also able to ...