SPECIAL FEATURES:
Email
NASA video crushes 2012 Mayan apocalypse myth
NASA debunks fear of an apocalypse caused by calendars, incoming planets, solar flares and planetary alignments.
Fri, Mar 09 2012 at 9:26 AM
365 DAY: The steps and top platform of El Castillo, the pyramid at Kukulkan, Chichen Itza, represent the days of the year. (Photo: Alaskan Dude/Flickr)
Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have put out a new video to address false claims about the "Mayan apocalypse," a non-event that some people believe will bring the world to an end on Dec. 21.
In the video, which was posted online on March 7, Don Yeomans, head of the Near-Earth Objects Program Office at NASA/JPL, explains away many of the most frequently cited doomsday scenarios. [See video]
Addressing the belief that the calendar used by the ancient Mayan civilization comes to a sudden end in December 2012, and that this will coincide with a cataclysmic, world-ending event, Yeomans said: "Their calendar does not end on December 21, 2012; it's just the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new one. It's just like on December 31, our calendar comes to an end, but a new calendar begins on January 1."
Yeomans also attempted to allay fears regarding potential causes of a Mayan apocalypse, including Nibiru, an imaginary planet that some people think is swinging in from the outer solar system just in time to collide with Earth in December. "This enormous planet is supposed to be coming toward Earth, but if it were, we would have seen it long ago. And if it were invisible somehow, we would have seen the [gravitational] effects of this planet on neighboring planets. Thousands of astronomers who scan the sky on a daily basis have not seen this," he said. [Believers In Mysterious Planet Nibiru Await Earth's End]
He added that there is zero possibility of a NASA cover-up. "Can you imagine thousands of astronomers who observe the skies on a daily basis keeping the same secret from the public for several years?"
As for solar flares, Yeomans explained that these do exist — in fact, two massive solar flares erupted just days ago, sending bursts of solar radiation into space — but they are part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle. Radiation from solar flares can damage orbiting satellites, but Earth's magnetosphere shields its inhabitants from the blasts, and the flares are not a health concern.
The well-known stone pictured in the video is actually an Aztec calendar, which was adopted from the Mayan calendar, changing the names of the days and months but following the same method.
"Then we have planetary alignments," Yeomans said. Some doomsayers believe the other planets and the sun will align with the Earth in December and cause catastrophic tidal effects. "Well, first of all, there are no planetary alignments in December of 2012, and even if there were, there are no tidal effects on the Earth as a result. The only two bodies in the solar system that can affect the Earth's tides are the moon, which is very close, and the sun, which is massive and also fairly close. But the other planets have a negligible effect on the Earth."
(Incidentally, it is perfectly normal for the sun and moon to align, bolstering each other's gravitational pulls on Earth and generating higher-than-normal ocean tides. This happens twice each month.)
Addressing the claim that Earth's axes are going to shift on Dec. 21, 2012, he said: "The rotation axis can't shift because the orbit of the moon around the Earth stabilizes it and doesn't allow it to shift." He noted that the magnetic field does shift every half-million years or so, but "there's no evidence it's going to happen in December, and even if it were to be shifting, it takes thousands of years to do so. And even if it did shift, it's not going to cause a problem on the Earth apart from the fact that we're going to have to recalibrate our compasses." [What If Earth's Magnetic Poles Flip?]
Invoking the astronomer Carl Sagan's famous maxim, he said: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since the beginning of time there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world, and we're still here."
Follow Natalie Wolchover on Twitter @nattyover. Follow Life's Little Mysteries on Twitter @llmysteries, then join us on Facebook.
Related on Life's Little Mysteries
Also on MNN:
Copyright 2012 Lifes Little Mysteries, a TechMediaNetwork company. All rights reserved.
You might also like:
Sign in with one of these accounts to add your comment.
EDITORS' PICKS
Advertisement
TODAY'S MOST POPULAR ON
- Watch: Sir David Attenborough deals with a band of cannibals the British way
- Facepalm of the week: Non-GMO salt!?
- 13 natural remedies for the ant invasion
- Yurts: Everything you ever wanted to know but were afraid to ask
- 7 surprising things Pope Francis has done in his first 100 days
- What a grocery store without bees looks like
- 5 recipes for garlic scapes
- 10 false facts most people think are true
- The 9 nastiest things in your supermarket
- CFL vs. incandescent: Battle of the bulb
From our sponsor
NEWSLETTER
Advertisement
Learn to science.
the alinement is not december2012,is december 2013,maya calander and modern calander ave1 years,deferance ave a nice day.
and nasa has an impecable record////////
you would think a nasa scientist would know the moon does NOT orbit earth. earth and moon orbit center of mass.
However, since the mass of the earth is 80 times that of the sun, the center-of-mass about which you speak is located 'inside' the earth, about 1000 miles deep, on the side that the Moon is on.
...sorry...I meant the mass of the earth is 80 times that of the _moon_
Go NASA, jts about time to tnink positve, remember the good, forget the bad. Apocalypse means a change... FOR THE BETTER OF COURSE! Do we have a time machine to verify anything!! Keep the Faith. God Bless us all, we are all human!
Im ready for Zombie apocalypse
I'll go with the idea that the Myan Calendar Maker never got past 12/21/12 because the Spaniards slaughtered him in the name of God...
The big shift will be that The Donald will run for president and actually win......his ego is too big to stay out of the race this year....he's just pretending to support Romney....it will be Trump, Obama, and Romney on the ballot this November...there will be a huge voting scandal that won't be settled until Dec 21, 2012, and Trump will trump them all...won't Melania make a lovely First Lady?
Nicely done! You count your misses, too, right?
Your such a dreamer.
Oh yeah, and to celebrate his win Trump will part his hair on the other side which will cause a pole shift.....
the earth's axes? sounds dangerous
Something is going to happen and the government knows about it.
They have millions of plastic coffin spread out across America. Plus for years the military has been stocking bunker(fall out shelters) also, maybe this is the reason we have 15 trillion dollars missing.... What, it fell behind the dresser, in the couch...Get real people. The world is over populated. Not enough food,jobs,medicines,gas.Something has to give.
HI Mary whilst your prediction about over population, and the food and clean drinking water is very accurate.Your assessment of the the conspiracy of the US Army and government to prepare for the Big Mayan Non Event is a Huge Exaggeration. I do not think that Hollywood could have made it any better with the Movie which I found quite funny. Try watching it without sound and it gets even more ridicules.
Plan for the Holidays otherwise you'll have very little to do on the big day. Chio Bella
Plastic coffins? You would think they would at least use bio-degrade ones.
I with you on the Zombies....ready!!
zombies will attack and most of the world will DIE. stop guessing and just wait for the invasion. WE FIGHT TIL WE DIE
Are you from New Hapshire?
Live your life to the fullest, enjoy your life and stop worrying. If you
live the way you are supposed to live, you will be taken care of when
the time comes for the rapture. The Anti Christ is supposed to come
and rule before the end comes anyway and that hasn't happened yet.
LOL LOL who the heck do you think the nut case, currently residing in the White House is???
Pages