You read that right; our best defense against an extinction level asteroid impact is to shoot paintballs at it!
According to Sung Wook Paek, a graduate student at MIT, launching tons and tons of the white paint powder that is used in the makeup of paintballs at an approaching asteroid would have enough force to nudge it out of the way of an earth shattering calamity. This would be accomplished not only by the actual force of impact from the paint itself, but also from photons of light bouncing off the white surface. These two forces combined would be enough to move, say, asteroid Apophis out of earth’s trajectory. For those not aware of it, Apophis is an asteroid that will come incredibly close to hitting Earth in the years 2029 and 2036, and it is commonly used as a model of one that might strike earth.
If scientists and governments plan to put this plan into action, however, they should start pretty soon, or hope that an asteroid will make more than one pass at earth before hitting us, as the time it would take for solar energy to move the asteroid enough not to be dangerous would take more than 20 years.
In the meantime, we can all be thankful that saving the planet will most likely not come down to a bunch of oil rig drillers and a crappy Aerosmith song; I think extinction would prove more welcome than that.