Here's why:
* His Gold Foil Experiment: Rutherford's famous experiment involved firing alpha particles (positively charged) at a thin sheet of gold foil. Most of the particles passed straight through, but a few were deflected at large angles, and some even bounced back.
* Deduction: This unexpected result led Rutherford to conclude that the atom's positive charge was concentrated in a tiny, dense region called the nucleus, which repelled the positively charged alpha particles.
* The Planetary Model: Rutherford's model resembled a miniature solar system, with the nucleus like the sun and the electrons orbiting around it like planets.
However, Rutherford's model was later refined by Niels Bohr, who introduced the concept of quantized energy levels for electrons.
