Matter is built in floors, each assembled from the one below: three quarks (pointlike, smaller than ) bind into a nucleon — proton or neutron, about across; nucleons pack into a nucleus ( to ); a nucleus plus its electron cloud is an atom (); atoms bind into molecules and crystals ( up), which assemble into everyday objects (), planets (), planetary systems (), galaxies () and the observable universe ().
Physics · Glossary
What is The structure ladder?
Also known as: quark · nucleon · nucleus · atom · molecule