What did the majority of the alpha particles do when they hit the gold foil in the Geiger-Marsden experiment?

In the Geiger-Marsden experiment, which is also known as the Rutherford gold foil experiment, the majority of alpha particles passed straight through the gold foil. This outcome was unexpected at the time because it suggested that atoms are mostly empty space. If atoms contained a lot of mass concentrated in a small area, one would expect to see a higher rate of deflection or absorption of the alpha particles.

This experiment revealed that while some alpha particles were deflected at small angles and a very small number were deflected at large angles (indicating the presence of a dense nucleus), the majority traveled straight through without any significant interaction with the gold atoms. This led to the conclusion that most of the volume of an atom is empty space, with a dense nucleus at its center. The findings were pivotal in developing the modern understanding of atomic structure.