Niels Bohr developed the Bohr model of the atom which showed the atom as a small, positively charged nucleus surrounded by orbiting electrons. He discovered that electrons travel in separate orbits around the nucleus and that the number of electrons in the outer orbit determines the properties of an element. The Bohr model likened the atom to a solar system with electrons in discrete orbits and energy levels, and it helped explain atomic spectra and the periodic table. Marie and Pierre Curie discovered the radioactive elements radium and polonium through their studies of uranium and thorium, helping establish the field of radioactivity.