蜜芽传媒

To test our capacity to defend the Earth from a doomsday scenario, Nasa successfully crashed a multimillion-dollar spacecraft into the asteroid Dimorphos. However, some are warning that a far more immediate danger resides not above our heads but below our feet, in volcanic eruptions.

The University of Cambridge's Centre for the Study of Existential Risk says that the threat posed by volcanic eruptions receives far less attention than those of asteroids, but it is far more likely.

Dr Lara Mani, who works at the Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, explains that there are some eruptions, from super-volcanoes and some smaller ones, that can "cause climatic feedback... catastrophic for our world," and that these eruptions are "1,000 times more likely than an asteroid impact," but with research and funding there are ways to mitigate them.

(Photo credit: Getty Images)