Question

if proton and neutron in an atom were to collide, would the whole atom be destroyed?​

Answer 1

In the early universe the key reaction was the collision of a proton and a neutron to form a deuterium nucleus (an isotope of hydrogen). Collisions between protons and neutrons had been happening continuously since the Beginning, but their energies were too high to allow them to stick together to form deuterium nuclei

refering:https://aether.lbl.gov/www/tour/elements/early/early_a.html

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Answer 2

Answer:

Protons and neutrons are both nucleons and if the collision is occurring at very high velocities, to first order, it doesn't matter if they are both protons or both neutrons. The thing is that protons and neutrons are not elementary particles - they are composite particles that have 3 "valence" quarks and a whole sea of virtual gluons and virtual quark-antiquark pairs. (The "valence" quarks mean that they are the quarks that give the proton or neutron their quantum numbers.)

So all of those particles are confined to the approximate spherical volume the size of the proton or neutron (a little less than 1 femtometer). When the two nucleons collide it is really the quarks and gluons of the two nucleons that do the colliding. If the incoming particles are at very high energies, like at the LHC at CERN, the collisions will inevitably be inelastic. If the collision is almost a glancing collision, the two protons may not be destroyed in the process. But for head on collisions, you will typically get MANY particles being created by the collisions of all the constituent quarks and gluons that do the colliding