The
Rutherford model is a model of the
atom devised by
Ernest Rutherford. Rutherford directed the famous
Geiger–Marsden experiment in 1909 which suggested, upon Rutherford's 1911 analysis, that
J. J. Thomson's so-called "
plum pudding model" of the atom was incorrect. Rutherford's new model for the atom, based on the experimental results, contained the new features of a relatively high central charge concentrated into a very small volume in comparison to the rest of the atom and with this central volume also containing the bulk of the
atomic mass of the atom. This region would be known as the "
nucleus" of the atom.