Ernest Rutherford is considered the father of nuclear physics. Indeed, it could be said
that Rutherford invented the very language to describe the theoretical concepts of the
atom and the phenomenon of radioactivity. Particles named and characterized by him
include the alpha particle, beta particle and proton. Rutherford overturned Thomson's
atom model in 1911 with his well-known gold foil experiment in which he
demonstrated that the atom has a tiny, massive nucleus.
His results can best explained by a model for the atom as a tiny, dense, positively
charged core called a nucleus, in which nearly all the mass is concentrated, around
which the light, negative constituents, called electrons, circulate at some distance,
much like planets revolving around the Sun.
The Rutherford atomic model has been alternatively called the nuclear atom, or the
planetary model of the atom.
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