NASA weighs in on 2012 apocalypse myths

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NASA weighs in on 2012 apocalypse myths

By Richard Hartman Nov 14 2009, 11:51 AM

Earth, as seen in the Blue Marble: This image shows South America from September 2004.

NASA says not to worry: the world is not coming to an end on December 21, 2012. The National Aeronautical and Space Agency has embarked in an unusual, to say the least, campaign to dispel widespread rumors fueled by the Internet and a new Hollywood movie.

Contrary to what you may read elsewhere on the Internet, a rogue planet named Nibiru and discovered by the Sumerians is not on a collision course with Earth, they say. And a solar flare won't toast the planet.

"I don't have anything against the movie. It's the way it's been marketed and the way it exploits people's fears," NASA scientist David Morrison at the Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, Calif.

A few websites have even accused NASA of concealing the truth on the wayward planet's existence, but the US space agency denounced such stories as an Internet hoax.

"There is no factual basis for these claims," NASA said in a question-and-answer posting on its website.

They point out that if such a collision were real "astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye."

Not only that, Nibiriu is actually behind schedule. The first stories about the planet actually set the date of catastrophe for May 2003, but when the world didn't end, the paranoid started looking ahead to the winter solstice in 2012, coinciding with the end of a cycle of the ancient Mayan calendar.

Contrary to popular myth, the Mayan calendar does not predict disaster in 2012 or come to its final end. Rather, it is the end of a very long time period and the beginning of a new one. They Mayans knew this, just like we know that time doesn't cease existing if we run out of pages on our annual wall calendar.

Furthermore, it doesn't seem that the Mayans are particularly good prognosticators, since they failed to predict the demise of their own civilization at the end of the 14^th century.

Scores of Internet postings and books delve into the supposed disaster, including "Apocalypse 2012" and "How to Survive 2012," reminiscent of the Y2K scare that came and went without much of a whimper. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. However, it will, NASA points out, be another winter solstice.

Read More: National Aeronautics And Space Administration (NASA), Climate Change, Offbeat, Videos

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nally jaquez
November 14, 2009 2:36 PM

oh thank god there is no doom in 2012

scared of 2012
November 14, 2009 7:39 PM

ilu

paul
November 14, 2009 9:45 PM

if they didnt spot a meteor that passed an earth by 8000 miles until 15 hours from @impact@ how they can deny absence of planet x in 2012?????

2012
November 14, 2009 10:21 PM

2012 is the END.

Art Jaquez
November 15, 2009 2:52 AM

There will always be people claiming the end is near, as there has always been. The problem now is that a lot of religious nuts try to facilitate it.

Ha wow
November 15, 2009 12:23 PM

To the dip shi*& named Paul.

That's a meteor, NOT a planet. Compare the size difference. Idiot...

Wow
November 15, 2009 12:34 PM

To Paul: compare the size of a meteor to a planet. Someone went to public school...

Anyways, great article. Disproves many ignorant people.

PEOPLE
November 15, 2009 1:31 PM

CHEERS!

diciteco
November 15, 2009 2:55 PM

To the best of my knowledge, the Mayans (well, really the Aztecs... who used a very similar calendar) did foretell the coming of Cortez, that's why they welcomed him with such open arms. No Mayans (or any other Native American prophecies) talk about the end of the world... instead they talk about a transition. What kind of transition we make is up to us.

Etznab
November 15, 2009 5:48 PM

"2012: Time for Change" projects a radical alternative to apocalyptic doom and gloom. Directed by Emmy Award nominee Joao Amorim, the film follows journalist Daniel Pinchbeck, author of the bestselling 2012: The Return of Quetzalcoatl, on a quest for a new paradigm that integrates the archaic wisdom of tribal cultures with the scientific method. As conscious agents of evolution, we can redesign post-industrial society on ecological principles to make a world that works for all. Rather than breakdown and barbarism, 2012 will herald the birth of a regenerative planetary culture, where collaboration replaces competition, where exploration of psyche and spirit becomes the new cutting edge, replacing the sterile materialism that has pushed our world to the brink. Interviews with design scientists, anthropologists, physicists such as Dean Radin, Barbara Marx Hubbard, John Todd and Paul Stamets and celebrities such as Sting, Ellen Page and Gilberto Gil. http://www.2012timeforchange.com/

Plumedserpent
November 15, 2009 7:52 PM

2012 is not a hoax. Roland Emmerich's 2012 movie pretty much depicts what is to happen only the cause of the cataclysm is wrong. The Maya were not the only onew who knew about 2012 as most of ancient world did from 3,000 BC till the 1800s when the knowledge was lost. Washington DC was laid out to reflect 2012 as a reminder to visitors. Monuments carved in stone were left world wide to warn our generation of 2012. Christ taught it in the Bible but few today have understood it. Read my non-fiction 2012 trilogy, The Ark of Millions of Years, the most comprehensive 2012 books in the world based on scientific, historical, biblical, and Mayan facts. Available in Barnes & Noble bookstores and online bookstores. I am a Mayan expert expert. The Maya will not restart their long count calendar because we will not need it. They believe, as I now do, that it is the end of the world, the true earth or original creation in this universe....have to read the books to understand that statement as 2012 is complex. The ancient world understood 2012 very well; the modern world, lest of all the modern Maya, lack the knowledge and understanding thereof and are stumbling in the dark looking for answers to 2012. Read and prepare while you can for the time is short. I write under the pen of E. J. Clark...thanks.

nightingalescode
November 16, 2009 4:00 PM

The end of the Mayan calendar marks the beginning of a new time, not the end of the world. Mayans now don't think the world is going to come to a crashing halt in 2012. This article gives a bit of insight; www.realitysandwich.com/mayan_elder_2012

Steph
January 29, 2010 3:43 AM

Plumedserpent

November 15, 2009 7:52 PM

Why don't you read the facts and go to the NASA website? Cause clearly people are making this up just to make people worry themselves to death.

Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.

Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the science behind the end of the world quickly unravels when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer several questions that we're frequently asked regarding 2012.

Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.

Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012

Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?

A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?

A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.

Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?

A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.

Yes I copied and pasted this from a NASA website go look at it for yourselves. It is so stupid that lots of people are actually listening to this crap when it's not going to happen I mean come on remember the world was going to end in 2000 too and did it? Nope cause it's all made up thoughts of someone who is clearly not well.

I don't believe the world is going to end because I read the NASA websites answers to questions and I know they're like the smartest scientists around so they would know right.

Anyways I did believe this until I went to the website and found for myself this to not true at all.

We will just have to see on 2012 I honestly do not think it is going to happen though.

The world is definitely not going to end in 2012 so don't worry if it was I am sure the NASA website would of let us know in there answers. Anyways I hope this helped goodnight all!!!