Scale Comparison
A hydrogen atom consists of a proton and an electron, yet its characteristic atomic diameter is about 60,000 times the proton’s.
The proton forms the nucleus; the atom’s quoted size comes from the spatial distribution of its electron state. Neither boundary is a hard surface, but the definitions still expose the enormous gap between nuclear and atomic length scales.
Objects
The proton is the positively charged particle that gives every atomic nucleus its identity. Less than 1% of a proton’s mass comes from the masses of its quarks; almost all of the rest comes from the energy of quarks and gluons bound by the strong force.
Hydrogen is the universe’s simplest and most common atom. Most hydrogen nuclei were forged in the first minutes after the Big Bang, and neutral hydrogen atoms emerged only after the universe cooled enough for electrons and protons to combine about 380,000 years later.
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About
Scale of Space is a scroll-based journey through the universe, placing objects on a single logarithmic scale so you can compare size across an unbroken range.
Guides explain selected parts of that range, while focused views filter the objects by subject.