NASA scientists concocted an idea a decade ago to save the world from the potential of a humanity-ending eruption of the supervolcano underneath Yellowstone National Park.

Their plan sought to prevent an eruption of one of the world’s largest supervolcanoes by siphoning off its heat and cooling it down with water.

It was an ambitious — and expensive — proposition. It would also be logistically impossible and, according to volcanologists, would do utterly nothing to reduce Yellowstone’s explosive potential.

The 2015 theory never would’ve worked, and NASA never tried to make it work. So why are people still talking about it?

“This was a back-of-the-envelope calculation done by some scientists looking at ways Earth might be threatened by catastrophe in the future,” said Mike Poland, scientist in charge of the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory. “But it was never a plan. It was never taken seriously.”