NASA scientists say 2012 is safe

William Atkins
Wednesday, 04 January 2012 00:19

Science - Space

Ill-informed, "not-very-smart" so-called experts are playing out many disaster scenarios in 2012. However, NASA 'debunks' all of these doomsday predictions such as the Mayan calendar, killer asteroids, Planet X, solar storms, and various other unscientific-based ones.

One of the biggest doomsday predictions is the Mayan calendar. The Mayan calendar is a system of calendars used in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica - known to have existed as far back as 500 B.C.

Today, Mesoamerica is called the areas of Guatemala, Belize, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and central Mexico.

The Mayan calendar is similar to the Gregorian calendar, (also known as the Western calendar and other such names) that is used today. It is the generally accepted civil calendar, begun in 1582 by Pope Gregory XIII, used around the world. The Mayan calendar, in the past, repeated itself just like the Gregorian calendar does today.

However, The Mayan calendar uses base-20 rather than our familiar base-10.

Misinterpretation of the Mayan Long Count calendar shows that December 21, 2012 will be the end of civilization. In reality, 12/21/2012 is simply the day the calendar goes from one cycle to another cycle.

December 21, 2012 is simply the end of a 5,126-year era within the Mayan calendar.

Likewise, on December 31, 2011, our Gregorian calendar ends the year 2011, and proceeds to the year 2012 on January 1, 2012.

Recently, our calendar also changed over from a larger cycle, the second millennium (year 1001 to year 2000) to the third millennium (year 2001 to year 3000). Just another cycle that is inherent in our way of recording time.

USA Today calls the Mayan calendar doomsday scenario 'a complete fabrication and a chance for a lot of people to cash in.' [USA Today (3/27/2007): 'Does Maya calendar predict 2012 apocalypse?']

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