What if the solar system is an atom

Which object would orbit Earth in both the Earth-centered and sun-centered models of the solar system? If the earth were the size of a tennis ball how big would the sun be and how far apart? How have the ideas about the structure of the solar system changed since hundreds of years ago?

What are the differences between the steady-state model of the universe and the Big Bang model Question 37a See all questions in Models of the Solar System. Since our own Solar System consists of a sun in the middle with eight smaller planets rotating around it in their orbits and the element Oxygen has a nucleus and eight smaller electrons rotating around it in their orbits, you could imagine that there is a similarity between the two.

Likewise, perhaps our solar system is an atom in some larger entity. Although recent studies have shown that the Bohr model of the atom is probably not correct—or at least incomplete—the concept of tiny solar systems has captured the imagination of many people.

This lesson will answer those questions. Useful tool: Units Conversion. According to the Bohr or solar system model of matter, every atom consists of a nucleus with a certain number of electrons rotating about the nucleus in their orbits.

The nucleus is much larger than the electrons. These particles are assumed to be very small spheres or ball-shaped. This is similar to the configuration of a solar system, with a large sun in the center and planets rotating in orbits around the sun. Look at the example of the element Oxygen, which consists of a nucleus and 8 electrons in orbit. Our solar system has our Sun and 8 planets in orbit around it. Perhaps there are even tiny little people or animals living on that electron.

When they look out through their tiny telescopes at the other atoms and molecules around them, perhaps they think they are looking at the whole Universe. This may be stretching our imagination, but is it a possibility? But what about Pluto? It used to be considered a planet, and it does orbit the Sun. However, it is no longer considered a planet and may have been a large asteroid that had captured into orbit by the Sun.

Just as an extra electron in orbit around the Oxygen nucleus would make the atom an ion, so too would the extra asteroid rotating around the Sun make the Solar System a form of "solar ion" or such. Following that train of thought, perhaps solar systems are actually "atoms" in a much larger universe.

We now know, however, that this beautiful idea is wrong. In reality, an atom doesn't look anything at all like the solar system. In the solar system, planets are constantly falling towards the sun, but also traveling so quickly in a sideways direction that they never actually fall into the sun. The planets are quite localized, and follow precise orbits governed by the laws of gravity. In contrast, we now know that electrons, unlike planets, are governed by quantum mechanics.

They don't have exact locations or trajectories, but rather exist around the atomic nucleus in a sort of probability "cloud. It isn't a terrible model, and it's easy to understand, but it misses some hugely important physics.