Since 1990 there have been detections of cosmic rays arriving with energies over 10E20 eV. At present less than a dozen have been detected that are undisputed but astrophysicist Bob Streitmatter, leader of the high-energy cosmic radiation group at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland says the Earth surface is struck about one strike per square mile per century.

The latest detectors search for the cascade effect in the atmosphere as the energies carom to the ground. At ground level the cascade is estimated to be about 50 ft wide by a couple feet thick moving near the speed of light.

I know these energies are something we still can't come near producing in our best accelerators and they are extremely rare, but what happens to some poor shmuck who happens to be walking along if he crosses paths with one?

Any ideas physically short term or long term medically?

Just aman

Spontaneous combustion!

Well it`s long since been known for cosmic ray radicals to actualy blast small pits in the substrate of silicon chips for some time now. so I should imagine a cascade of the lil` buggers wouldn`t do ya much good! probably be needing a new cell fone and watch so you can time your calls from hospital