

The Oh-My-God particle - mootothemax
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oh-My-God_particle

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pif
> in other words, a subatomic particle with kinetic energy equal to that of a
> 5-ounce (142 g) baseball traveling at about 100 kilometers per hour (60 mph)

Similar energy but, luckily for us, completely different impact dynamics: a
myriad of small interactions along its path in the atmosphere and in the Earth
(I don't know the maximum depth, maybe it's even possible for it to traverse
the planet), releasing energy a bit at a time, instead on one single sudden
crash.

Yes, baseball is still more dangerous than an "Oh my God!" particle :-)

~~~
brokencube
Especially if we accelerate that baseball to relativistic speeds:
<http://what-if.xkcd.com/1/>

~~~
pc86
Am I the only one that thinks the latest What Ifs aren't quite as good as the
first few? It seems the first ones took a lot of research, time and energy
while the last several were whipped up in half an hour.

