'Avengers 4' Proton Cannon Ruled to Be Wildly Impractical by Nuclear Physics Professor

Last week, an Avengers 4 set photo gave fans a tantalizing look at what might just be a fan-favorite Iron Man weapon, the proton cannon. However, when it comes to the effectiveness of such a weapon, the Avengers might not want to rely on it, at least according to an expert in nuclear physics.

Ani Aprahamian, Ph.D., a professor of experimental nuclear physics at the University of Notre Dame, told Inverse that if the possible weapon showcased in the set photo is supposed to be Tony Stark's proton cannon as inspired by the Marvel vs. Capcom arcade games, it's probably not going to be particularly effective for one fairly straightforward reason: its size. The Avengers 4 prop appears to be far too small to be fire protons.

"A proton beam...like at the LHC [Large Hadron Collider] produces almost 0.6 Amp of current, but it's a huge ring and [requires] many laps of the ring to get to high energies," Aprahamian said.

The LHC, built by CERN and located in an underground facility near Geneva, Switzerland, is many, many times larger than the device seen in the photo which would generally mean that the proton cannon wouldn't be able to get the same level of power. However, if Tony somehow managed to figure out how to reach the same type of power on a smaller scale -- this is Tony Stark, after all -- that doesn't mean the weapon would still make much sense. It turns out that protons don't make the best cannons.

"A lot depends on the energy of the proton beam," she said before explaining that that 10 megaelectronvolts wouldn't travel very far, "Maybe one meter in air. Hard to do a cannon like that."

That isn't to say that the proton cannon wouldn't do some damage. If the intended target was close enough to the device the energy blast would probably be enough kill but given how Thanos managed to outsmart and outmaneuver the Avengers at nearly every turn in Avengers: Infinity War, they might not be able to get the Mad Titan close enough. Of course, that's assuming it would even work on Thanos seeing as how he took Thor's axe to the chest and survived.

And the idea of the heroes not having the best fortune when it comes to dealing with things post-snap is something that fans might just need to accept. Scarlet Witch actress Elizabeth Olsen warned fans not to get their hopes up during a recent convention appearance.

"It's only going to get worse," Olsen said at ACE Comic Con Chicago.

Fans will get to find out exactly what that mysterious device is and how it's used when Avengers 4 hits theaters on May 3.