Paintballs Could Deflect Deadly Asteroid, Researchers Claim (VIDEO)

29/10/2012 11:15 | Updated 29 December 2012

For all of the many ways Hollywood movies have devised for humanity to deflect deadly asteroids, they've never considered paintballs.

But scientists have.

According to new research, a hypothetical asteroid heading for Earth could be deflected with little more than two, big and well-aimed, paintballs.

By coating an asteroid in paint, the idea is that the rock would become more reflective - and be diverted by photons from the Sun bouncing off its surface.

Sung Wook Paek came up with the idea, and this weekend it won a competition sponsored by the United Nations' Space Generation Advisory Council, named the 'Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition'.

No, there are no plans to weaponise the space shuttle with a giant paintball gun. Rest unassured: if a deadly rock were discovered to be hurtling towards us, we're just as defenseless as ever. But it's nice to know someone, somewhere, is working on it.

Take a look at the video of the theory above.

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