2012: Why the World Won’t End? – NASA

we hear about the year 2012 supposedly being the beginning of the End of the World or ‘Doomsday’. You can read out everywhere online and will find people talking about in all the time in the bars, family gathering, Twitter, Facebook and all. Even an upcoming Hollywood movie 2012 is based on 2012 : End of the World. But what is TRUE?

Is 2012 going to bring the world to an end? Or is it just another ‘end of the world’ hoax like the Y2K scare?

To understand about it precisely I have found two sources that can answer some of your questions.

Fear about the year 2012 rest on just one of at least three Maya calendar systems unearthed by scholars, the “Long Count,” which began on Aug. 13, 3114 B.C. The Long Count tracks the duration of what the Maya called “great cycles” of time. The cycle we’re currently in ends on 13.0.0.0.0, what we non-Maya call Dec. 23, 2012.

[Source: USA Today]

USA Today shares a very good image to understand how to read Mayan calendar. You can understand more about it from the link above. Below is an excerpt from NASA website explaining 2012 : End of the world theory and answers some of the relevant questions.

Similar to the Y2K scare which 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.

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 are frequently asked regarding 2012:

• Q: Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
  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?
• Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
• Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
• Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
• And many other similar questions. To read about them all, please read this article on NASA website.

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2012, Apocalypse and the End of the World

2012 is now out. I haven't seen it yet, but plan to this week or next. In case you've been living in a hole, here's the theatrical trailer.

The date, 2012, comes from a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar. As best I can tell, because of course you read this blog for all your Mayan calender questions, December 21 , 2012 will mark the end of a the longest unit of the Mayan Long Count calendar, the b'ak'tun. A b'ak'tun is 144,000 days, about 394 solar years. December 21, 2012 will mark the end of the 13th b'ak'tun in the cycle which started at the beginning of time, 4 Ahaw, 8 Kumk'u (August 11, 3114 BC). The 13th b'ak'tun began on September 18, 1618 and will end 144,000 days later on December 21, 2012. On January 1, 2013 the 14th b'ak'tun begins.

That, or it's the end of the world as we know it.

As a psychologist I'm kind of worried about all this. Millennial, end of the world, fevers make people crazy. I fear we'll have some zany stuff going on as we saw when we rung in January 1, 2000 and all the Y2K anxiety. To avoid this, I'm going to be doing my 2012 shopping early just to stay away from all the crazy people. Can you imagine what WalMart is going to be like the minutes before midnight December 21, 2012?

On second thought, as a psychologist, maybe I should be there, notebook in hand. Hey, if the world is ending I might as well be working and productive. On the other hand, I don't think I'd like to meet the End of Days in the Frozen Meat section of my local WalMart. So who knows where I'll be. Maybe I'll succumb and you'll find me, gun in hand, in a bunker I dug in my backyard. Seriously, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity already have me convinced that Obama is the Antichrist. Because, you know, this is what the Antichrist would do, seek ways to cover poor people with health care...

Back to the movie 2012.

At the last Summit at ACU my friend Stephen Johnson had a presentation about apocalypse and movies. In the presentation Stephen classified end of the world movies into types. I can't recall his taxonomy, but it was something like Nuclear, Natural Disaster, Extraterrestrial, etc. I can't recall if there was a Religious category. But you get the idea.

After creating the taxonomy Stephen tracked these types across decades, noting clusters that corresponded to the fears of the time. For example, the apocalyptic films of the 50s and 60s tended to feature Cold War or nuclear threats. In the 90s, as concerns were mounting about environmental catastrophes (e.g., global warming), we saw less nuclear apocalypse and more natural disaster apocalypse in the movies.

But what about 2012? What class of apocalypse is it? Why would the Mayan calender, of all calenders, be synced so precisely with the End of Time? Particularly given its fairly arbitrary (to our mind) and factually inaccurate starting point?

Here's my take. There is this feeling that the ancients were more in touch with the cosmos. That their time-keeping and rituals were somehow more synchronized with the cosmos. Their time feels more "real" than our time. Our time, or at least the rhythms of our day, are driven by the work time clock. Their time was synced with the moon, sun and stars. Our time, by contrast, has no spiritual or cosmic significance. Our time just tells us when when to start the commute home or that we are late picking our kids up from soccer practice. In short, movies like 2012 speak to our spiritual dryness. In this case, how that dryness manifests itself in our time keeping devices and our calenders. Another symptom of this dryness is how many Protestants, given their historical ties to the life of work (e.g., the Protestant work ethic), are increasingly attracted to the Liturgical Calender.

In short, my time is trivial, empty and myopic. The ancients, by contrast, well, their time is transcendent and takes in the entire vista: It starts with Creation and terminates, on December 21, 2012, with the End of Days.

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NASA debunks 2012 end of the world myths

Stop dipping into your retirement fund for booze-filled weekend jaunts to Vegas because NASA says the world isn’t ending in 2012, despite what the Mayan calendar supposedly claims. The government space agency has even set up a webpage dedicated to debunking all the doomsday theories floating around internet. Wow, NASA really sucked the fun out of my plan to go on a three year cupcake bender.

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NASA Dismisses End Of The World In 2012

NASA has posted a detailed report online dismissing heightened fears the world will end on December 21, 2012 - brought about by interest in John Cusack's new disaster movie.

The scientists have received so many requests for information about the stunning blockbuster, 2012, and the apocalypse it details, they have chosen to post their findings online, and send those concerned about the date to a new webpage.

In the film, Cusack and Amanda Peet race to avoid a series of end-of-the-world events, brought about by a rogue planet which crashes into Earth - but the NASA know-it-alls insist the film is pure fiction, and even the suggestion that it ties in with ancient Mayan lore is a myth.

NASA expert Dr. James Garvin says, "We see absolutely no scientific evidence, no sign of any doomsday gloom or anything coming in 2012. We're well aware of the kind of threats that the movie depicts but there's no possibility of those happening at the time. If there were a renegade planet approaching Earth, we would have known... The last time we were hit by anything big enough to have been detected was 65 million years ago."

Watch "The end of the world is coming in 2012."

See more photos of 2012 here!

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