Could we see a real real atom, not animation ?

Question

We can see distant and unseen galaxies thru the Hubble tele. Can't we see a real real atom though ? Have we still not developed a device to see an atom in real time with electrons going around the nuclei ? what ever we have is all animation.

Answer 1

You will NEVER see a picture of an atom like you see a picture taken by your camera. The atom is smaller than a photon. However, electron microscopes can show images of an atom. Those pictures you see are real and not animation.

Answer 2

Because atoms are really microscopic (nanometer scale), it is not possible to view them directly with the eye. They can however be seen indirectly with the Scanning Electron Microscope, SEM, and with the Scanning Tunneling Microscope, STM. In either case, while the images created are highly accurate, they are computer enhanced processed images -- not real-time. So, in that sense, it is not possible to view atoms as anything other than highly accurate animations. That is my current understanding anyway.



See: Atomic Resolution with Scanning Tunneling Microscopy

http://www.cns.cornell.edu/documents/ScanningTunnelingMicroscopy.pdf



See: Atomic Force Microscopy

http://virtual.itg.uiuc.edu/training/AFM_tutorial/



See: Atom-By-Atom Extraction Using the Scanning Tunneling Microscope ...

http://www.phy.ohiou.edu/~hla/HLA-46.pdf

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Best regards

Answer 3

There are some images which show the rough shape of atoms, but nothing like you are suggesting, because, as the respondent S suggested, the wavelengths required to view it are larger than the atom itself.

Here is a link to one of those images.

Answer 4

No. An atom is about a thousand times smaller than the wavelength range of visible light (i.e. about 5 angstrom versus 0.5 micrometers). You learn in optics that in order to resolve (separate) two points, they must be farther apart than half of the wavelength you're using to see them, so an individual atom won't be different from two or ten or a million of them (1000 squared) bunched up together. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelength#Diffraction-limited_resolution

Answer 5

No, you can't see an atom directly. Your eyes use certain wavelengths of light to see. Atoms are much smaller than those wavelengths, so they are invisible to that light.



Plus, electrons don't go around the nucleus. They form a cloud around it.

Answer 6

Not really. Even with a scanning electron microscope its difficult to see atoms in real time. An SEM is a very large machine, and normal people are very unlikely to ever have access to an SEM in real time.



http://www.explainthatstuff.com/electronmicroscopes.html



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scanning_electron_microscope



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_force_microscopy

Answer 7

not really their way too microscopic for any microscope, however our images today weren't made up by artists, scientist are able to develop an image out of what they will most likely look like by studying their behaviour.

Answer 8

What we have isn't animations. What we have is actual images from electron microscopes, those aren't images made up by an artist.