You know we’re living in strange times when scientists at NASA, who likely have more pressing and important things to do with their time and/or brains, have to go on YouTube to promote the idea that the world isn’t going to end anytime soon.
That’s right. The world. Ending in some giant, cataclysmic disaster that apparently a number of people are expecting at the end of 2012.
According to a FAQ on NASA’s website – and the fact that a FAQ exists for this kind of thing is almost news in itself – a number of websites claim that a planet or a brown dwarf (a “failed star,” as it’s often called) is on a collision course with Earth. It’s allegedly going to cream us in some giant game of Space Billiards, leading to the complete eradication of all human life before the end of the year.
And, naturally, the fact that the Mayan Long Count calendar resets on December 21, 2012 – a once-evey-1,872,000-day affair – gives us all a great target for the upcoming disaster. Better cancel your viewing party for “A Charlie Brown Christmas.”
Or not, says NASA’s Don Yeomans, senior research scientist and manager of NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office.
“Niburu is suppose a planet that’s four times the size of the Earth. It’s going to get very close to the Earth and cause all kinds of disasters,” Yeomans said. “So this enormous planet is suppose to be coming toward Earth, but if it were, we would’ve seen it long ago and if it were invisible somehow, we would’ve seen the effects of this planet on neighboring planets.”
“Thousands of astronomers who scan the night skies on a daily basis have not seen this,” he added.
Yeomans uses the same logic to debunk those who believe that NASA is somehow concealing the information of Earth’s pending demise from the general public – perhaps just to make the death of billions a bit more of a delightful surprise come December 20. It’d be difficult to keep such a conspiracy among thousands of people simultaneously, Yeomans argues.
The NASA scientist goes on to address other doomsday scenarios, including rumors that a massive solar flare is going to obliterate us all – they’re a-coming, but nothing worse than a ” fairly mild” period of activity – and suggestions that the Earth’s magnetic poles are going to flip-flop and cause all sorts of calamity.
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence,” Yeomans said. “Since the beginning of recorded time, there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world, and we’re still here.”
