Is there any end to the micro world?

Question

I was wondering what are the limits of how far we can zoom in on the micro universe? Could we ever expect to find an end to the structure of an atom? I keep thinking about the macro universe and there is seemingly no end could we expect this in the micro universe if someone developed a way to peer further into the atom?

Answer 1

How small you can look at things depends on how much energy you have in your probe particle. More energy means you can probe a smaller scale. So as our accelerators get bigger and more energetic (about 15 Terra electron volts at the LHC will be the best when it's up and running next year), we can resolve finer and finer detail. We can already resolve scales far smaller than an atom or even a nucleus. We can resolve the structure of baryons like protons and neutrons. As best we can tell, the leptons (electrons and neutrinos) and quarks (components of baryons) are point particles. But who knows what we'll see when we look closer.