The Mayan calendar, Planet X, polar shift or a huge meteor - what will end the life on Earth in 2012? We are apologizing to the pessimists, but year 2012 will be the same as any other year in Earth's history.
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The story of Armageddon that will happen on December 21, 2012, started with claims that Nibiru, a 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 stories 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.
What about Mayan calendar? 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 period but then another long period begins for the Mayan calendar.
Will a planetary alignment cause mayor tremors and doomsday? Well... no. 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 centre of the Milky Way Galaxy and we don't see the doomsday, do we?
What about Nibiru or Planet X or Eris approaching the Earth and threatening us with destruction? Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are a hoax. If Nibiru or Planet X 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. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a small planet that will remain in the outer solar system - the closest it can come to Earth is about six billion kilometres.
Now, is it true that the Earth's crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days? Well... no. A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. A magnetic reversal is taking place every 400,000 years on average and as far as we know such a magnetic reversal doesn't cause any harm to life on Earth. Anyway, we'll have to wait for a magnetic reversal a few millennia, anyway.
OK, but some people are worried about the meteor. Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012? The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, but the last big impact was 65 million years ago. Today Spaceguard is following every large near-Earth asteroid and all that work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website. So, you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.
So, the next time you hear about "Disaster 2012" just ask for the scientific evidence. Unfortunately for any pessimist, there is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012. ■