How do we know what an atom looks like?

Question

I cannot fathom a piece of equipment that literally zooms in so far that we can see a single atom. I’m assuming that the figures we have of atoms are just theoretical.

In: Chemistry

Answer 1

An atom actually has no “look”. Visible light has a wavelength of around 500nm, while a hydrogen atom is only around 0,1nm. That means that the light we see is way too “large” to show details of an atom, the light wave basically just passes through it.

So yes, all the figures are just theoretical illustrations from stuff we deducted from particle accelerator and classical experiments (e.g. that the atom is mostly empty and the core very small etc.)