When paintball meets asteroid. Screenshot from reasearch video.

One day, an asteroid will inevitably set its destructive path towards Earth, so scientists must be prepared for our imminent demise. Researchers are now considering using a paintball gun to prevet the asteroid apocalypse.

Giving a hell-bent asteroid a new coat of paint could be enough to sucessfully change its trajectory, according to MIT News.

Using the asteroid Apophis, which may strike the Earth in 2036, MIT graduate student Sung Wook Paek demonstrates that firing two clouds of paintballs at the asteroid’s surface would double its reflectivity. This increase would attract photons from sunlight and create enough pressure to deferr the asteroid from its path. Paek’s idea won the 2012 Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition this past weekend. According to Paek, it would take an estimated 20 years for the asteroid to successfully change direction.

At this time, giant paintball cannons are not a part of NASA’s asteroid survival plan. 

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Mollie Paige writes for the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter @MolliePB

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