NASA Ponders Painting Earth Bound Asteroid

From the "Oh, Isn't This Great" department, comes this story that has left me shaking my head. I'm no NASA scientist but I think if I were, I'd have a much cooler Sci-Fi explanation of how we might ward off the the pending destruction of our planet. "Help us Obi-Wan Kenobi...you're our only hope".

What's set me off this time is that top NASA brass and everyone else who knows this stuff are saying that an asteroid with the destructive force of a thermo-nuclear bomb might swing within only 17,000 miles of our planet, next year. I haven't heard that term since the last time I saw the movie, Wargames, and I'll admit I'm a little nervous.

We could paint it,” says NASA expert David Dunham.
Paint would affect the asteroid’s ability to reflect sunlight, changing its temperature and altering its spin. The asteroid would stalk off its current course, but this could also make the boulder even more dangerous when it comes back in 2056, Aleksandr Devaytkin, the head of the observatory in Russia’s Pulkovo, told Izvestia.

You know...it might just be insane enough to work! But it also seems that if they're that worried, they might put a little more thought into saving our worthless arses than a trip down to the nearest Sherwin Williams. Have we started building this rocketed robotic Dutch-Boy yet? Maybe Richard Branson might give space tourists the chance to wield a paint sprayer. Does paint work in space? So many questions. Then again, what do I know? My friends would agree with "not much."

They have also talked about hitting it with big guns that force a change in the rock's trajectory or even crashing some form of rocket into it. It's too bad that moving the planet is out of the question. Why haven't these brainiacs figured that out yet?

Even more sad...I have no better suggestions. Do you? I just thought I'd warn you.

Check out the entire story. It's got cool space maps and everything.