Are Electron Orbits Really Circular or Is It Just an Artist's Depiction?

[hinella]

I have seen some pictures of atoms taken by IBM, they seem like blurred round balls. Even other pictures with sophisticated instruments give a similar view. Are these pictures real ? Can they be trusted ? I ask this because electrons cannot be seen in any way aside from the fact that they are "point like" particles, the nucleus can't be seen directly, so how can you see the sum of two things that can't be seen ?

Is the image just an artists depiction ? And then why are they round when quantum mechanics says that they are just probabilities ? Anyways very weird situation, not totally convinced by IBM and others that they have real pictures of atoms.

And how fast are the electrons circling around the nucleus ?

 

[Andy Resnick]

Becasue electron microscopes require the use of many.emany electrons to create an image, what you are 'seeing' is time-averaged. I suppose one could argue that the orbital is being imaged... I'm not sure I would, though.

In a true quantum-mechanical picture, electrons do not 'move' or orbit the nucleus. In fact, velocity is poorly-defined in quantum mechanics because of the uncertainty principle.

 

[Volcano]

My opinion; shapes are not important and nobody may see it. Only known thing about looking is the approximate borders of electron orbits abroad nucleus. So for Bohr, these are circle. Some cases they must ellipse. All cases look like a round thing :) this must be the reason. And you know, angels are illustrated as woman in paintings. Who saw?