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An extremely high-energy particle is detected coming from an apparently empty region of space
(www.theguardian.com)
This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
So I am curious about this comparison. If this particle had hit you square on the top of your head, rather than the array they built to detect it... would you even know it? Would it kill you? Make you uncomfortable? What?
I think it would probably go through you?
Someone got hit by a proton beam in a particle accelerator and survived: https://medium.com/predict/the-man-struck-by-a-particle-accelerator-beam-ab829b2e1949
And his face half stopped aging! Wild story, always love being reminded of this guy.
This is such a bad and sensationaliat article - completely ignoring that we use protontherapy for quite a while now.
It'd obliterate what ever particle(s) were unfortunate enough to be in the way. They'd turn in to a shower of other particles, like sticking your head in a particle acelerator, but all at once.
It's highly unlikely all of the energy would go in to you, so it'd amount to a narrow beam of ionizing radiation. Potentially deadly, potentially not. A guy did get his head in a particle acelerator beam when he thought it was turned off. Saw a really bright flash and all. It kinda' messed up that narrow channel of flesh and he has some cignitive issues as a result.
It would warp you to the top of the tower.