Can an atom disintegrate

Answer 1

"a virus can kill it" I doubt that an atom can be killed by a virus. A virus a form of microbiology. This means, that a virus itself is made from atoms, and can only kill other biological creatures. An atom is not a biological creature, it is a building block for everything. This would be like saying you can fire a gun from a gun, where the gun becomes the bullet. An atom changes it's element properties through the number of protons versus neutrons, the isotope, etc. There for a virus is actually atoms.

When an organism dies, their atoms do not die, they just assume another form. Atoms can go from being organic tissue, to dirt. On an atomic level, any form of matter can actually be anything. A rock can be water, wood can be plastic, oil can be wine, skin can be metal, glass can be oxygen, and so on. For something to die, it has to be living in the first place. Atoms are not organisms; they cannot die.

Answer 2

No and yes

If you mean to be obliterated then no, matter cannot be created or destroyed, only change.

But if you mean disintegrate to mean no longer integrated or whole then yes, atoms can lose particles when they become something else.

Answer 3

Atoms are comprised of smaller and smaller entities traditionally called protons, neutrons and electrons (in reality, even these traditional particles and charges are similarly comprised of their own unique entities). Atoms, not being living entities, cannot die. However, the structures of atoms can be altered either intrinsically through "decay" and "fission" or superficially by sharing outer electrical charges. When the structure is intrinsically altered, the atom ceases to exist as its former name, and takes on all new properties and a different elemental name (or isotope with the same name). When an atom's structure changes superficially, it becomes part of a "compound" or it becomes "ionized." If it becomes part of a compound, it can adopt properties that are entirely different from the original atom. For example, let's look at chlorine atoms and sodium atoms. Chlorine is a gas, it is deadly toxic and extremely reactive. Sodium is an highly reactive, soft shiny metal that can cause a self igniting explosion upon contact with water. Now, if we combine sodium with chorine, we get sodium chloride which is just regular old table salt - and bears no resemblance to its two constituent parent atoms.

Answer 4

Good question. It dies when all of it's power runs out.