> Even if the exposure were for a year, if the amount of light being emitted is less than the hardware can perceive, it wouldn't register
That is not true. It might be noisy, but it would show up.
In point of comparison the human eye can see a single photon.
A single atom can emit a single photon, ergo you can see a single atom.
You won't get any detail out of it obviously, but you'll see it as a dot of light.
That's what's happening here.
> There's a story here about the size of the light being emitted that doesn't seem satisfactorily answered
You are misunderstanding the "size". The size "10,000" is the resolution needed to differentiate between two atoms sitting next to each other.
But in order to see the atom (detect the atom), you just need to be able to capture what it emits. And it emits photons, and it's not that hard to capture and record a single photon.
So you do, and it shows up as a single dot in the image.
If you had two atoms near each other, both emitting photons, you would not be able to distinguish them from each other (i.e. you couldn't say if there were one or two), unless they were farther apart.
If we're seeing the single photon emitted by a single atom, then how much larger is the spot of light in the image compared to the atom that emitted it?
Why isn't there a ruler somewhere in the picture? My brain is absolutely failing to make sense of the scales and sizes in this image.
> then how much larger is the spot of light in the image compared to the atom that emitted it?
The atom is about 255 picometers, the light is around 400 nanometers. That makes the light around 1500 times larger than the atom.
(Which also helps explain why visible light can not distinguish atoms placed close together - it's so much larger than them.)
> Why isn't there a ruler somewhere in the picture? My brain is absolutely failing to make sense of the scales and sizes in this image.
The two electrodes are about 2mm apart. About the width (not length) of a sesame seed. It's really small. The photo was taken through a microscope.
Another point of reference: the width between the electrodes is about 5,000 times the wavelength of the light being emitted.
In theory, if you had a good enough camera, the dot of light would be around 1/5000 of the width. (However the diffraction limit of your lens might enter into play, blurring the image.)
And finally, the width between the electrodes is about 8,000,000 times the size of the atom.
That is not true. It might be noisy, but it would show up.
In point of comparison the human eye can see a single photon.
A single atom can emit a single photon, ergo you can see a single atom.
You won't get any detail out of it obviously, but you'll see it as a dot of light.
That's what's happening here.
> There's a story here about the size of the light being emitted that doesn't seem satisfactorily answered
You are misunderstanding the "size". The size "10,000" is the resolution needed to differentiate between two atoms sitting next to each other.
But in order to see the atom (detect the atom), you just need to be able to capture what it emits. And it emits photons, and it's not that hard to capture and record a single photon.
So you do, and it shows up as a single dot in the image.
If you had two atoms near each other, both emitting photons, you would not be able to distinguish them from each other (i.e. you couldn't say if there were one or two), unless they were farther apart.