zhayne wrote:

Not necessarity. Even if the electron is inside the nucleus
(as an extreme example). It can still be ejected out of the
atom. Therefore your reasoning that just because it is
ejected means photonic energy can get it to higher orbitals
is faulty. Any empirical proof much like how Rutherford
determine the center of the atom has concentrated mass as
in nucleus via the alpha scattering of the gold thin foil
thing? Perhaps some lasers have been used to probe that
photonic energy can indeed make the electron jump to higher
orbital or farther away from the nucleus?

Yes, of course. But it's resonable to expect that higher orbital
energy raises the electron to a higher radius. At the classical limit
that's how things are observed to behave when they are mutually
attracted, as with positive & negative charges, and gravitating masses.
Since this principle produces reliable numbers that match experiment,
it's an overcomplication to propose that it works the other way around
as the electron gets to within some very small radius of the nucleus.
In order for it to be worthwhile theoretically, it'd have to do a
better job of accounting for observables than the present paradigm.

As for experiments, I don't know if any Rutherford types have been
done to address this very question, and I don't know just offhand how
it would be done.

-Mark Martin