For the First Time, A Snapshot of A Single Atom's Shadow

Looks more like a pixel peeping of red eye to me.

this can't possibly be an atom. atoms are not made of stuff that would reflect the light, light would go straight through them.

Another thing is that atoms are not 2D, they are 3D objects. And here we clearly have a 2D 'pancake' object.

Anyway, I am just curious, what stuff are these waves made off?

ytterbium (^_^)

its like a picture of a lunar eclipse.. the shadow is all you can see. and pictures are not 3d they are 2d. aka a pancake.
not all light would pass though. and certain frequencies of light will be absorbed.. hence why we have certain matter give of certain colors of light... like a carbon atoms will absorb all colors that is why its graphite is black. but that's not completely true. since light is refracted off of matter too.

@COROVICD

Are you a dullard? One thing about you is certain-- You are very insecure about your intelligence. I can tell by how voraciously you attempt to try and prove yourself to be smarter than the scientists that actually took the photo.

Here's where you are wrong: You say atoms are not made of stuff that would reflect light? Really? Are you that dumb? What do you think every single material object in this universe is made of? Atoms, right? Guess what light does when it is shone on atoms (more specifically the electrons of an atom)-- They reflect or absorb light.

I'll put this in a way I'm sure even you can understand: Mirrors reflect light. Mirrors are made out of atoms. Therefore, atoms reflect light. Light shines through glass because of the way the atoms are arranged, despite being made entirely from the same element. Think about a diamond versus coal. Some atoms reflect different wavelengths of life allowing us to perceive differences in color.

Case-in-point, if atoms did not reflect light, you probably would not be able to see a damn thing right now.

Also, if you could actually comprehend what you read, you'd realize that you aren't proving anything when you say "atoms are 3D, not 2D." Why? Because that is completely irrelevant. How? Because the very title of this article tells you that this is a photo of an atom's SHADOW. Shadows are, and will forever be, 2D. Seriously, it must be painful to be that stupid. Thanks anyway, Captain Obvious.

If I had to make a guess based on its aesthetic appearance, I'd say the "waves" are the ytterbium's electron shells. Other than that, I'm not sure.

You're not smart. Leave the science to the big boys, small son. This may have been inflammatory, but you need to knock yourself down a peg.

@Rackmore
well put... but as far as u know you might have just called a 12 year old stupid.

@Rackmore

to find out if the waves are from ytterbium's electronic shell, the waves can be counted to see if the have the same number of waves as ytterbium has shells. :)

@Rackmore
on second thought our friend "COROVICD" is probably a 52 year old from the United Kingdom. he seems to think that the internet has made him an authority on roswell, ufos and stuff.

Now try to use this concept for cloak generation. Project a shadow screen with particles directly or by projection of the shadow it collects rather than operating with the idea that more light is better.

The rings in the image are likely interference fringes. The light used in the experiment was a "specific frequency", meaning that it was very narrow bandwidth (likely a laser). Any light scattered by the atom or its electric field would interfere with the background beam and produce fringes.