10 end-of-the-world scenarios

This year's Doomsday Clock stopped at a record 90 seconds to midnight. Scientists believe that humanity is closer to extinction than ever before.

Here are 10 of the most objective and likely doomsday scenarios on the planet.

No.1. Impact of a giant asteroid

The impact of an asteroid on the Earth 66 million years ago has already led to apocalyptic events that resulted in the extinction of dinosaurs.

As a result of the impact, soot and dust clouds rose into the atmosphere, which changed the climate and destroyed 75% of plants and animals on Earth.

Scientists estimate that such asteroids fall to Earth about once every 100 million years. According to this theory, the next impact on our planet will occur in about 30 million years.

No.2. The rise of killer robots

A serious debate has erupted in Silicon Valley over whether to take stricter control of the rapidly developing artificial intelligence technology.

It involved such minds as Microsoft founder Bill Gates and Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who supported ChatGPT technology. At the same time, SpaceX and Tesla founder Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak opposed it.

Scientists believe that such robots will become the "third revolution" in military affairs - after the discovery of gunpowder and the invention of nuclear weapons.

No.3. Supervolcano eruption

Supervolcanic eruptions are quite rare on Earth, occurring about once every 100,000 years. If one of these eruptions were to occur now, the planet would face the end of the world. First, there would be a series of powerful earthquakes, and then the hot lava would be thrown 64 km away and ash clouds would cover the sky.

The gases and ash that would rise into the atmosphere for several days would plunge the planet into darkness and cause irreparable damage to people's lungs.

The temperature on the planet will drop sharply, making agriculture difficult or impossible and leading to world hunger.

So far, scientists call this threat unlikely, but they cannot rule it out completely.

No.4. Arrival of the aliens

The biggest concern is that if an alien race is able to reach the Earth, it will be so advanced that humanity will be completely defenceless.

Scientists are still going to send a message into space with information about the Earth's location, hoping that it will be received by an alien civilisation. It is hoped that the alien race that receives the message from the Earth will not be warlike.

No.5. Death of the Sun

There is every chance that a dying star, when it runs out of fuel, will swallow Mercury, Venus and even the Earth. But this will happen no sooner than in 5 billion years, and so far astronomers have seen a clear example.

At a distance of 12 thousand light years from the Earth, a dying star swallowed a planet, and it happened in our Milky Way galaxy. A hot world the size of Jupiter was drawn into the atmosphere of a dying star and then dissolved in its core.

No.6. Inversion of the Earth's magnetic field

Researchers believe that the oscillation of the Earth's magnetic poles led to the extinction of Neanderthals, as it dramatically changed the planet's climate.

However, research by scientists from Lund University, who analysed data on the strength of the Earth's geomagnetic field over the past 9,000 years, suggests that we should not expect an inversion in the near future.

No.7. Pandemic

A truly apocalyptic disease must be incurable (like Ebola), mostly fatal, highly contagious, and have a long incubation period (like HIV).

If a pathogen acquires such horrific features, then a pandemic could lead to the end of the world.

No.8. A wandering black hole

We now know for certain that there is a supermassive black hole called Sagittarius A* at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy.

Since even light cannot escape a black hole, it means that the Earth will not stand a chance. Our planet will be pulled into the event horizon of the black hole, where the Earth will either be torn apart or ejected into another part of the Universe.

No.9. Nuclear war

According to some estimates, the risk of a nuclear war in the next century is about 10%, which is already quite high.

A nuclear strike would trigger the so-called "nuclear winter", when sunlight would be completely blocked in the Earth's atmosphere. The temperature on the planet could drop below zero, and the ozone layer would most likely be completely destroyed. This will cause mass starvation and the collapse of human civilisation.

No.10. Global warming

Climate change could see the global average temperature rise by up to 4°C. This will primarily affect the world's poor countries, whose territories will become uninhabitable, leading to mass deaths, famine and equally massive migration.

If the temperature continues to rise, it will lead to an uncontrollable greenhouse effect that could make our planet look like Venus, where the temperature on a typical day is 482 °C.

We can only hope that nothing like this will happen.