Bohr Planetary Model
of the Atom

The Bohr Model is probably familar as the "planetary model" of the atom illustrated in the adjacent figure that, for example, is used as a symbol for atomic energy (a bit of a misnomer, since the energy in "atomic energy" is actually the energy of the nucleus, rather than the entire atom).

In the Bohr Model the neutrons and protons (symbolized by red and green balls in the adjacent image) occupy a dense central region called the nucleus, and the electrons orbit the nucleus much like planets orbiting the Sun (but the orbits are not confined to a plane as is approximately true in the Solar System).

The image shown above is not to scale since in the realistic case the radius of the nucleus is about 100,000 times smaller than the radius of the entire atom, and as far as we can tell electrons are point particles without a physical extent.