More than 100 years after scientists began studying the atomic nucleus, they still don’t understand what holds it together. The nuclear force is the strongest force in the universe, yet it ...

An atom consists of a heavy center, called the nucleus, made of particles called protons and neutrons. An atom has lighter ...

The question of where atoms come from requires a lot of physics to be answered completely – and even then, physicists only have good guesses to explain how some atoms are formed.

First, let's explore the atom's architecture. Formed from a cluster of protons and neutrons at the center of an atom, a nucleus is 10,000 times smaller than the atom as a whole, "like a fly in a ...

The invisible dark matter is one of the universe's biggest mysteries, and its existence is confirmed only by the ...

Many heavy atoms form from a supernova explosion, the remnants of which are shown in this image. NASA/ESA/Hubble Heritage ...

How is matter different from mass? These and other questions about the deepest levels of physics, answered inside.

While gluons are responsible for generating most of the visible mass in the universe, their role inside nuclei remains poorly ...

When Israeli aircraft recently struck a uranium-enrichment complex in the nation, Iran could have been days away from ...

In 1913, only the barest outlines of the structure of the atom had been drawn. Frederick Soddy, although struggling to understand how an electron could be emitted from the nucleus during beta ...