• Question: If the hadron collider was to go wrong would it blow up the Earth? And if it did go off could it send a shock wave through space?

    Asked by pembertion to Christina, Colin, Jess, Samaneh, Steve on 18 Jun 2013.
    • Photo: Christina Pagel

      Christina Pagel answered on 18 Jun 2013:


      No – it wouldn’t blow up the earth! and it probably wouldn’t create a shock wave (unless someone else blew it up with a bomb!)… although the particles are moving really fast they’re very small and don’t pack as much punch as people seem to think!

    • Photo: Steven Gardner

      Steven Gardner answered on 19 Jun 2013:


      About the worst that could happen is the magnets not working properly and the protons crash into the side of the ring. But as Christina says, these particles are very small so you probably wouldn’t notice much.

      Here’s a video of scientists disagreeing about what would happen if you put your hand in the beam.

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