New picture of atomic nucleus emerges
Friday, March 2, 2012 - 08:31
in Physics & Chemistry
(PhysOrg.com) -- When most of us think of an atom, we think of tiny electrons whizzing around a stationary, dense nucleus composed of protons and neutrons, collectively known as nucleons. A collaboration between the U.S. Department of Energy's Argonne and Thomas Jefferson National Laboratories has demonstrated just how different reality is from our simple picture, showing that a quarter of the nucleons in a dense nucleus exceed 25 percent of the speed of light, turning the picture of a static nucleus on its head.