Using Paintballs to Prevent Asteroid Collision With Earth
- 12 years ago
Paintball could serve as a possible defense against asteroids.
How can we protect the earth from being hit with an asteroid?
One strategy we have right now comes from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student.
His idea is to hit the asteroid with 5 tons of paintballs filled with white powder, 20 years before it is scheduled to collide with the Earth.
The impact of the pellets hitting the asteroid would change its trajectory, but also, the white space rock would then be reflecting sunlight photons so intensely that the asteroid would be pushed further off its collision course.
This method may eventually come in handy. NASA scientists have found some 4 thousand 7 hundred asteroids that are potential threats to our planet.
In February of 2013, a large asteroid is going to pass Earth at a closer distance than any of its size in recorded history.
The asteroid is not on a collision course, but the diameter of 45 meters is enough to cause damage equivalent to an atomic bomb explosion.
How can we protect the earth from being hit with an asteroid?
One strategy we have right now comes from a Massachusetts Institute of Technology graduate student.
His idea is to hit the asteroid with 5 tons of paintballs filled with white powder, 20 years before it is scheduled to collide with the Earth.
The impact of the pellets hitting the asteroid would change its trajectory, but also, the white space rock would then be reflecting sunlight photons so intensely that the asteroid would be pushed further off its collision course.
This method may eventually come in handy. NASA scientists have found some 4 thousand 7 hundred asteroids that are potential threats to our planet.
In February of 2013, a large asteroid is going to pass Earth at a closer distance than any of its size in recorded history.
The asteroid is not on a collision course, but the diameter of 45 meters is enough to cause damage equivalent to an atomic bomb explosion.