According to the Rutherford's model, what is the main characteristic of an atom's nucleus?
It is small, dense, and positively charged
Rutherford's gold-foil experiment showed that most alpha particles passed straight through the atom, while a very few were deflected sharply back. He concluded that almost the entire mass and all the positive charge of an atom are concentrated in a very small region at the centre, which he named the nucleus. Electrons move around this nucleus in the space outside it.
So the nucleus is not spread throughout the atom, nor is it large or negatively charged, and it certainly does not contain only electrons; electrons are outside the nucleus. The defining feature of the Rutherford nucleus is that it is tiny, extremely dense and carries the atom's positive charge.
Hence, the answer is It is small, dense, and positively charged.
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