A physicist at Texas A&M University named Dave Hyland has proposed developing a device to “kill” asteroids by launching spray paint.
It is not a delusion. Hyland is convinced that one of the most effective ways to prevent a future collision of an asteroid with the Earth would be to use a paint-laden triboelectric cannon that launches the material as if it were an aerosol to cover the rock mass with a fine color patina.Based on the Yarkovsky effect, Hyland argues thatthe paint would produce a change in the amount of sunlight the asteroid reflects.
And it is that, while the asteroids are rotating,the area of its surface that has been heated by the Sun moves to the side of empty space and radiates infrared photonsthat generate a small thrust, which obviously affects its orbit. Thus, it seems logical to think that by painting one of these rocky masses in color and changing the light that it is capable of reflecting, it would be possible to increase this thrust and alter the trajectory of the celestial body completely.
The main drawback is that traditional paints made with water or oil vaporize when exposed to the vacuum of space. This is why Hyland and his colleagues have proposed euse a mixture of inert gas and charged dry puncture powderwhich would be attracted by the electrostatics of the asteroid. When the solar wind and the ultraviolet light from the star acted on this material, the asteroid would be covered by a thin and delicate layer of color.
TheNASAis willing totest the theoryof Hyland and his colleagueswith a giant asteroid called Apophis-in honor of the Egyptian god of evil, chaos and destruction- who will approach the Earth in 2029, make a return to the Sun, and will be visible again from our planet in 2036, when he begins his way back towards the ends of the Solar system.
