What Happens If You Get Hit by the Large Hadron Collider?
It pierces you and more.
Scientists emphasize two things for certain. Putting any part of your body in front of a proton pair laser is a very bad idea. Each proton contains 320 trillion particles, meaning its energy is 362 megajoules. That's enough energy to melt and pierce through tons of copper. Second, it's extremely difficult for someone with such a death wish to get in front of this laser. Even if you open a part of the collider to access the laser, it will automatically shut down.
Let's say you manage to stick your head inside a collider. What happens next is a bit unclear. The physical damage is related to the number of protons that contact the nuclei in your skin and the number of protons that move around inside you, seemingly undisturbed. Even a single proton beam could be considered a small chance of impact. But when it does, given the 320 trillion particles involved, it's certain to blow a hole in your face. The real question is, what will that hole look like? When protons hit a target, say a copper block, they scatter secondary particles in different directions, which can then propel them into another round of collisions. A hole a few microns thick can continue to deepen, forming a distinctive cone shape.
The only person to do so, 36-year-old Anatoli Bugorski, managed to put his head in front of a proton laser at the U-70 collider in Russia in 1978. According to Masha Gessen's 1997 article, a hole was created in the back of his head. Part of his brain was damaged, and he suffered facial paralysis and epilepsy.
Source:
Popular Science-FYI: What Would Happen If You Got Zapped By The Large Hadron Collider?
