Paintball Pellets Could save Earth from Asteroids

{\rtf1\ansi\ansicpg1252\cocoartf949\cocoasubrtf540 {\fonttbl\f0\fswiss\fcharset0 ArialMT;} {\colortbl;\red255\green255\blue255;\red34\green34\blue34;\red0\green22\blue231;} \margl1440\margr1440\vieww9000\viewh8400\viewkind0 \deftab720 \pard\pardeftab720\sa240\ql\qnatural \f0\b\fs24 \cf2 BY: MEGAN RICE \b0 \ If only Bruce Willis had a paintball gun in the movie Armageddon... A researcher at MIT says carefully timing and launching a few paintballs at an asteroid could deflect the space rock.\uc0\u8232 \u8232 Sung Wook Paek, the MIT grad student that came up with the plan explains to {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://www.space.com/18248-paintballs-asteroid-impact-deflection-video.html"}}{\fldrslt \cf3 \ul \ulc3 Space.com how this}} would all work.\uc0\u8232 \u8232 \b \'93The initial force from the paintballs would nudge the asteroid slightly off course... And the pale paint job resulting from the splattered pellets would more than double the space rock's sunlight reflectivity. More photons bouncing off the asteroid's surface would enhance solar radiation pressure and bump it further off course.\'94 \b0 \uc0\u8232 \u8232 Well just in case that didn\'92t make sense, here\'92s a video of what the paintball fight would look like. The first round of pellets would cover the first half of the asteroid. Then the second round would cover the rest. Making the object completely white and more reflective.\u8232 \u8232 First Facebook and now paintballs moving asteroids....{\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/deflecting-an-asteroid-with-paintballs-1026.html"}}{\fldrslt \cf3 \ul MIT News tells us how these great}} ideas keep coming from school competitions.\uc0\u8232 \u8232 \b \'93Paek\'92s paper detailing this unconventional strategy won the 2012 Move and Asteroid Technical Paper Competition, sponsored by the United Nations\'92 Space Generation Advisory Council.\'94 \b0 \uc0\u8232 \u8232 But if you are expecting as much action as a National Professional Paintball League match, {\field{\*\fldinst{HYPERLINK "http://http//www.slashgear.com/fighting-asteroids-with-paintballs-an-mit-graduate-students-winning-strategy-26254235/"}}{\fldrslt \cf3 \ul \ulc3 Slash Gear explains you might be\ulnone }}disappointed.\uc0\u8232 \u8232 \b \'93And sadly, while it\'92s fun to imagine the asteroid careening off-course immediately after a blast of pellets, it would take about two decades for the solar radiation pressure to shove the rock out of its dangerous trajectory.\'94 \b0 \ \ }