Rutherford's alpha particle scattering experiment, conducted by Ernest Rutherford in the early 20th century, was a groundbreaking experiment that led to a fundamental change in how scientists understood the structure of atoms. In this experiment, Rutherford and his team fired alpha particles (helium nuclei) at a thin sheet of gold foil. They observed the scattering of these alpha particles, expecting most to pass straight through the foil with minimal deflection, as was predicted by the plum pudding model of the atom prevalent at the time. This model posited that atoms were composed of a diffuse cloud of positive charge within which electrons were embedded like plums in a pudding.

However, Rutherford observed that a small fraction of alpha particles were deflected at very large angles, with some even bouncing back towards the source. This was a completely unexpected result and could not be explained by the plum pudding model. Rutherford proposed a new model of the atom to account for these observations. He suggested that instead of being distributed throughout the atom, as the plum pudding model proposed, the positive charge (and most of the atom's mass) was concentrated in a very small, dense region at the center of the atom. He called this the nucleus. The electrons then occupied the space around the nucleus, much like planets orbiting the sun. This model explained why most of the alpha particles passed through the gold foil (they passed through the empty space around the nucleus) and why some were deflected at large angles (they came close to or collided with the dense, positively charged nucleus).

Based on this information, the correct conclusion that can be drawn from Rutherford's alpha particle scattering experiment is:

Option B: electrons occupy space around the nucleus.

This conclusion was revolutionary because it overthrew the then-accepted plum pudding model and led to the planetary model of the atom, where a dense nucleus is surrounded by electrons in orbit. It specifically emphasized the existence of a central nucleus within the atom, around which electrons move, rather than being about the relationship between mass and energy (A), the specific structure of the nucleus in terms of protons and neutrons (C), or the precision of impact points with matter (D).