How to put 170 atoms in an atom

Scientists can fit over 100 atoms inside a single Rydberg atom—an atom with an electron excited to a very distant orbital, making it over 1000 times wider than normal. To accomplish this, researchers create a Bose-Einstein Condensate (atoms cooled to near absolute zero) and use a laser to excite one atom into a Rydberg state, allowing the ultra-cold atoms to be trapped within its enormous electron orbital without disrupting it.