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Astronomy (thesaurus)

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Concept information

Preferred term

atomic nucleus  

Definition

  • The atomic nucleus is the small, dense region consisting of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, discovered in 1911 by Ernest Rutherford based on the 1909 Geiger–Marsden gold foil experiment. After the discovery of the neutron in 1932, models for a nucleus composed of protons and neutrons were quickly developed by Dmitri Ivanenko and Werner Heisenberg. An atom is composed of a positively charged nucleus, with a cloud of negatively charged electrons surrounding it, bound together by electrostatic force. Almost all of the mass of an atom is located in the nucleus, with a very small contribution from the electron cloud. Protons and neutrons are bound together to form a nucleus by the nuclear force. (Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_nucleus)

Broader concept

Entry terms

  • atomic nuclei

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URI

http://data.loterre.fr/ark:/67375/MDL-W4LWC06G-J

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