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 Wednesday (Mar. 7), Don Yeomans, head of the
Near-Earth Objects Program Office at NASA/JPL, explains away many of the most
frequently cited doomsday scenarios.
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.
"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."
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."
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