Do you believe the world is coming to an end in 2012?

Question

The mayan calender ended in 2012, nostradamus predicted it as well. Do you think planet X will end our whole existence?!

Answer 1

1. 2012? end of the world? no.

2. Brant: Did you not die (along with the rest of us) on the night of December 31, 1999, when all our computers blew up? Sorry, those were only the PC's.

3. Bad Santa: the melting North polar caps will not raise the level of water in the oceans, because they are already floating on water -- they are therefore already displacing their own weight. When they melt (and they are) the water level stays the same.

4. The Mayan calendar marks the end of one Long Count (also called "age") in 2012; a new one starts on the next day (exactly like Y2k when our own calendar ran out of numbers -- if you used Windows).

It is interesting to note that the Mayans themselves have left some predictions (astronomical events) that are clearly dated for after 2012. I guess they themselves did not believe in the end of their own calendar.

It a bit as foolish as people using dates in the 2000s, even though everyone knew we'd all die at the end of 1999.

5. Planet X has been many things in the past. Recently, someone associated the name with the planet Nibiru, invented following a translation of and old Sumerian text. In those days, Sumerian texts were rare and we were not sure how to trasnlate half the words. Now that we have more texts, we get better translations and the planet Nibiru is very likely Jupiter. Jupiter is not coming after us.

However, more recently, an author changed the parameters of the orbits of the fictitious planet (the original author/translator had pegged the return for 2085) in order to make it match the Mayan calendar prediction.

Just so you know, the Sumers were long dead when the Mayans (a couple of continents away) came up with their calendar. There is no link between them. ANd yet, the 2012 prediction for the return of this planet requires an exact match between the fictitious planet's orbital period and the Mayan calendar.

6. Nostradamus has not had a very good prediction for a few centuries now. There are only concoction that are made after the fact, usually with poor translations (often in English). I prefer working with the original.

7. Isaac Newton wrote (1704) that his analysis of the Bible led him to conclude that the end of the world could not occur before 2060. He does not say that it ends that year, only that it can not end before that year.

I would believe Isaac Newton over Burak Eldem any day.

8. autoglide: The galactic equator is a great circle on the celestial sphere. The ecliptic (apparent path of the Sun) is a great circle on the celestial sphere. Because they are distinct great circles, they must cross twice (theorem in spherical geometry).

Since the ecliptic marks the annual path of the Sun (our star), then the Sun crosses the galactic equator twice a year.

The Mayan used the winter solstice to mark the end/start of their common year. Our Western "civilization"astronomy uses the Spring equinox as the basis of our celestial measurement system. The fact that the winter solstice position is closest to the apparent centre plane of the Milky Way was as important to the Mayans as the change of the Vernal Equinox is to us: we are entering the "Age of Aquarius"
(get that damn song out of my head... please)

9. Jayden H: you can get a list on all the known asteroid that could be potentially hazardous at
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/orbits/
There are presently 912. Of these, the number that will slam into Earth in the next 100 years is... 0.

Answer 2

You know, I was wondering if anybody was ever going to ask that question!

No, just kidding. Okay, sorry.

The Mayan calendar doesn't mean diddly. It doesn't end then, either. The big bad alignment of the sun with the galactic center is NOT going to occur. It will miss by 5 or 6 degrees, like it does EVERY year. (They didn't mention that, did they?)

There is no alignment which has ever had catastrophic effects on the earth. Of course, you can always believe in some kind of magic, and that the money-grubbing sensationalists who make this claim are telling the truth. But then, this is a science forum, where such superstitious nonsense gets its well-deserved pie in the face.

The Nostradamus fans, like the Planet X and Nibiru people all latched on to this thing, just like I predicted they would. The Nostradamus fans will be just as wrong this time as they were when they predicted nuclear holocaust and World War 3 for the 1990's and the Apocalypse for the first couple of years of this century. They have NEVER been right when they predict something before the fact. AFTER the fact, they match any quatrain with any disaster and fudge and twist and distort the already cryptic verse to make it look like a prediction. They'll be wrong again and a whole new crop will crawl out of the sewers within ten years of this non-Apocalypse, and make a brand new and equally ridiculous set of predictions for the NEXT Apocalypse.

I have survived at least six ends of the world in my lifetime; all widely publicized and believed by millions of "open-minded" people.

Edit: Ann and Megan and ACL, this is why this particular rubbish makes me mad. It scares the crap out of kids. The people who push this are bullies. You can relax, kids. On two separate occasions, just like this, when I was a teacher, I had to comfort and convince poor crying kids that they weren't going to die today. Christ! There were even some NEWS programs that ran the story the night before!

Answer 3

I don't think the world will end. I am however eager to see what happens in 2012. The Mayans predicted that 12/23/2012 is the date that our Solar System aligns itself with the galactic center and "passes through the mouth of the dragon". I have done some research on the issue, but I myself haven't come to a conclusion. I'm just keeping an open mind and seeing what information is out there, trying to make sense of it.

Brant an earlier poster seems like a smart guy, but I disagree with him on one major thing. He stated that there have been no extinction or other major events for a solar alignment and I disagree with that. If you follow the work of Graham Hancock he demonstrates that many extinction type events actually time up well with our solor system passing through the galactic center or galactic "equator". Check out his book "The Mars Mystery" for more information on that.

Answer 4

I believe we are headed for a few world changing events about that time. The rate of increase in CO2 has been accelerating far more than has been released in this country. All of the US predictions of polar ice melting in 50-100 years are based on a 1990's 1.3% increase of CO2. In 2000 this growth rate was listed as 3,3% a year.

By Doyal Rice, "The researchers calculate that global carbon-dioxide emmisions were 35% higher in 2006 than in 1990."

In the next paragraph it reads, "What's especially troubling, notes lead author Josep Canadell of Australia's Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, is most climate scenarios used by scientists and policymakers to predict temperature increases are based on the 1.3% rise."

later in the article was, "Carbon sinks (Mother Nature) were keeping up with the increased emmissions, but now they're not."

The polar ice melting raises ocean levels. More sea water means more weight on the tectonic plates. More weight means more earth quakes and volcanos. Pick your take on the end results, but the rate of natural disasters per year is on the rise.

Answer 5

Good effort of Brant trying to explain, but there is one thing. Our star is moving from the Southern "hemisphere" to the Northern "hemisphere" on our galaxy at some point in time it will pass thru the galactic "equator".

Having said that, there is nothing that suggest that anything will happen.

I do believe that the Mayan were hell of astronomers, really good indeed. But you have to be aware that any prediction made was based in their cultural believes at that moment in time.

I believe that if you raise a child telling him he is going to fall from his bike, he WILL fall from his bike and most likely will never try it again. That is how sensitive we are to suggestions. My point, probably some extremist will take advantage of the situation to create some international incident.

Let's just be vigilant.

P.S. How is the website coming along?

Answer 6

Nope. Funny how Nostradamus apparently predicted many ends of the world, and has been consistantly wrong for about 1000 years now.

Answer 7

Brant deserves a star for his first line.

-- added later (even though I hate to add anything on this topic):

There are a couple of things mentioned here regarding Aquarius and the galactic center, and I want to clarify them. (Both of these things are correct astronomically, but have absolutely no effect on our lives.)

First, you should understand a few terms. The "celestial equator" is the plane of the earth's equator projected onto the celestial sphere. The "ecliptic" is the plane of the earth's orbit projected onto the celestial sphere, and is inclined 23.5 degrees to the celestial equator. You can also think of the ecliptic as the annual path of the sun through the constellations. (Of course, you don't see this path directly because the background constellation is rendered invisible by the glare of the sun.) The galactic equator traces the plane of our galaxy; it is a great circle that passes through the Milky Way that we see in a dark sky.

The earth's axis of rotation precesses (like a wobbling top) with a period of 26000 years, so the celestial equator slides around the ecliptic in that period. Any two great circles meet in two points, so that is true for the equator and the ecliptic. One of these points is known as "the first point of Aries", because that point was in Aries long ago. Since there are 12 constellations (a purely human invention) in the zodiac, this point moves into a new constellation about every 26000/12 years, or about every 2200 years. It has since moved through Pisces and is now near or in Aquarius. (If you use the astronomical boundaries for constellations, this point is still in Pisces; but perhaps it is now in Aquarius by some astrological definition.) The age of Aquarius occurs 2200 years after the age of Pisces, which occurs 2200 years after the age of Aries, and so on. Without our arbitrary constellations, there would be no significance to this period.

Consider next two other great circles -- the ecliptic and the galactic equator. These also meet in two points, and one of them happens to be near the galactic center. (The galactic center lies a few degrees away from the closer point.) The sun passes through this point once every year, so there is nothing special about this alignment in 2012 that doesn't occur every other year. What is just a bit unusual is the following: The time at which the sun passes through this point varies from year to year, again in a 26000-year cycle. A few years ago (around 1998), that passage occurred at the same time as the winter solstice. So what? Exactly. This has happened countless times in the past, it will happen countless times in the future, and it doesn't matter much to anyone. In any case, we're already passed this milestone, and 1998 was no more catastrophic than most years.

Note that neither of the items discussed above has anything to do with the solar system passing through the plane of the galaxy. (The vertical location of the sun relative to the plane of the galaxy does oscillate over a long period, but that is a different effect.) These items are due solely to the wobbling of our little planet over this 26000 year period. It is called "precession of the equinoxes", and you can find more information about it on the web. (Most astronomy texts will mention the first item mentioned above but not the second.)

Finally, there is one alignment in 2012 that is of some genuine interest. On June 5 or 6 of that year (depending on your time zone), some parts of the earth will witness a transit of Venus, in which the disk of Venus will pass in front of the sun. This is a pretty rare event, and will not happen again until 2117. It is of historical interest, because these transits used to be the best way to determine the scale of the solar system (i.e., the distance to the sun in miles), and it is an interesting thing for amateur astronomers to watch (provided they have safe solar filters). It represents a nearly-exact alignment of the earth, Venus, and the sun, but otherwise has no significance; and it has happened many times in human and world history. The last time was 2004, and that year was also not particularly disastrous (other than the result of the presidential election).

Answer 8

You have just asked the most common and boring question, other than "do you believe men landed on the moon".

This Mayan calendar thing is a farce. Read real science for heaven's sake.

Also look at:

http://www.abhota.info/

This guy has a record of all the doomsday prophecies that have come to nothing.

And people like you still get fooled by them.

get a life.

Answer 9

omg thats so scary. I sure hope not. Planets and everything just freaks me out. What if the sun decided to burn us to death. =[
What if Jupiter decided to suck us into that big whole in it? What would happen!! D=
What if a black hole sucked us up!? What if a big meter hig us and it crushed the whole world except for China!? omg!
O_O im very paraniod.

Answer 10

NO!!!!!!

Where are you getting your info??? Nostradamus NEVER predicted the end of time!!!!!

I will say, If God decides to take us all, I am ready to be the LORD!!!