How to save humanity from a giant asteroid? Shoot paintballs at it, of course

Why? Because it makes pretty colors?

Paintballs are not the weapons that immediately spring to mind when considering how to defend the earth from a potentially catastrophic hit from a giant asteroid.

However, according to Sung Wook Paek, a graduate student in MIT’s Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics it could be the answer.

If Paek's calculations are correct then the staple of office bonding outings may be the way to change the course of an asteroid before it collides with the earth.

The MIT graduate has proposed his theory as a submission to the 2012 'Move an Asteroid Technical Paper Competition', sponsored by the UN’s Space Generation Advisory Council.

The purpose of the contest, as the title suggests, is to find the best plausible solution to deflecting asteroids, or other near-earth objects.