Critically examining the "End of the World"
Is there any scientific evidence regarding 2012 and the solar alignment theory?
The following is a question being asked on Yahoo Answers. Both the questions and answers given do not reflect the view of our website.
Question:
I mean wouldn’t NASA be all over this because im sure we have some kind of expert astronomers out there that would be able to predict a massive galactic alignment in 700 days right?
| This entry was posted by Daniel on August 15, 2011 at 12:51 am, and is filed under Galactic Alignment Theory. Follow any responses to this post through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback from your own site. |



about 1 year ago
NONE– NASA is all over this! They posted a web site DEBUNKING the 2012 hoax.
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/intro/nibiru-and-doomsday-2012-questions-and-answers
Galactic and or planetary alignment have no effect on the Earth. Actually the planets NEVER all align in a straight line as seen from outside the solar system. The sun and the Earth line up on the galactic center TWICE every year.
about 1 year ago
For many months I have had a ‘standard answer’ for questions which involved subjects such as ‘Planet X’, ‘Nibiru’, ‘Mayan Calendar’, ’2012′, ‘End of the Earth’, etc. etc. but I have desided to re-compose it since it seems to be pushing all of the wrong buttons on a lot of ‘people’.
It really is too bad that most people have such knee-jerk reactions when reality challanges any of their personal beliefs. Especially if those beliefs are based upon some sort of ‘pseudo-science’ which gets a lot of air time or, even worse, if it seems to encroach upon some of their cherished beliefs in the supernatural or any sort of organized beliefs holding that the Universe is the result of some omniscient beings whim(s). It just seems to be another measure of how unbelievably stupid and gullible so many people are.
In the last few months (since I started replying to a sudden upsurge of questions about ’2012′) the ‘standard answer’ I have given (and to which I refer above) has been posted literally hundreds of times. And yet, suddenly, I find myself in receipt of violation notices to an answer which has, heretofore, not been considered offensive by anyone. My suspicion is that I have simply ‘tweaked’ someones cherished (and stupidly misplaced) belief(s) in the nature of reality (or the 6:00 O’Clock News).
While my ‘standard answer’ is certainly not any bastion of subtlety or wonderful example of writing style (within the context of contemporary usage of the English language) it certainly seems far less insulting or provocative than the ubiquitouss ‘F–k You’ that shows up on the pages of Y! Answers from time to time.
However…….
It does seem that there have been a huge number of individuals who have been misguided (rather badly, in most cases) in their beliefs. Whether this disinformation to which they have been subjected is accidental or disingenuous in origin is of no real interest. But the promulgation of such untruth(s) (and in particular, such untruths as terrify the younger and more susceptible members of society) without checking their veracity is certainly cause for wondering just how hopelessly stupid some individuals can be. The only ‘people’ of substantially lower moral (and intellectual) caliber are the ones attempting to profit from Chicken Littles irrational belief that ‘The sky is falling!’.
There have been any number of well thought out, well documented, and well presented replies to de-bunk the myth(s) that ancient Mayan calendars, numerology, crystal gazing, spiritual advisors, or other such superstitious nonsense is capable of predicting the end of the Earth. I have lost count of the number of Astronemers (professional and amateur alike) who have refuted claims made for the existence of some ‘rogue planet’ which is supposed to strike the Earth on 21 December, 2012. There are any number of very credible sources on the Web (whose URL’s have been repeatedly mentioned on Y! Answers) providing proof that such things are not going to happen and one would think that, after enough time, some faint glimmer of intelligence reaction to these doomsday myths just might begin to be noticed.
But such is not the case. It appears that, no matter how many times one provides real, factual, repeatable, demonstrable proof of a thing, the ‘popular’ response will shout down reality and those exposed to reality will either change sides, or fail to respond for fear of being ridiculed by those who must be correct since ‘everyone knows it’. Someone once observed that: “Truth passes through three distinct phases. First it is ridiculed, secondly it is violently opposed, and finally it is accepted as self-obvious truth.” It really is a good observation of the average persons ‘mentality’. Apparently the speed of intelligence is rather slow while the speed of stupidity may approach that of light itself.
Doug
about 1 year ago
There is no scientific evidence backing up most of the 2012 claims. The sun gets to within 4.9 degrees of lining up with the center of Milky Way Galaxy every December 21. That’s the width of 8.9 full moons. Not much of an alignment. And the the solar system is 115 light years above the equatorial galactic plane and isn’t going to cross it 700 days.
about 1 year ago
Nope, none
about 1 year ago
First off, late 2012 is about 1200 days, not 700.
And NASA and every other solar system astronomer IS all over it. They have run computer simulations going forward and backwards for billions of years to explain our future and past. And the evidence is clear.
There will never, EVER be an alignment of more than three planets. Ever. Even getting three planets in alignment is hard. Four or more is impossible.
about 1 year ago
Q1: No.
about 1 year ago
There is no scientific evidence regarding 2012.
about 1 year ago
No, it is entirely bunk.
There is a near alignment which will happen, but it happens twice every year. According to one authority, it came closest to a perfect line up in 1998. That’s 11 years ago and it’s going away from it now. That’s if I’ve got the right line up. There are at least four different ones being lied about on the net and it’s hard to keep track of which one.
But just exactly what is supposed to happen if these things did line up? What connection is there between some object thousands of light years away and the Earth?
If it’s gravity, just think about it for a moment. What about Newton’s gravity law that says that the attraction between two masses is proportion to their product divided by the SQUARE of the difference between them. The Earth and the Sun are about 26 or 27 thousand light years from the middle of the galaxy. So your divisor is about 700 million. The gravitational constant is also a very small number.
So whatever the attraction between the Earth and the galactic centre is, it is not huge.
Things almost line up. It’s actually about 6 degrees off. How much greater would the gravitational attraction be if they were exactly lined up? Did they teach trigonometry at your school? The difference is almost vanishingly small, a small difference in a number that is already quite small, in comparison to the force between the Earth and Moon and the Earth and Sun. When the Moon and Sun line up – an eclipse, do we fall into the Sun? No. Yet the forces involved are far greater.
So if it’s not gravity, what is it? Have you ever read Lewis Carrol’s “Hunting of the Snark?”
about 1 year ago
No. Quite frankly it doesn’t even deserve to be called a hoax, because there hasn’t even been any evidence fabricated; the whole thing is just a load of pure pseudoscientific nonsense with no factual basis whatsoever, and its popularity relies entirely on the scientific ignorance of the general public. Not a single one of the proposed mechanisms for the apocalypse in 2012 holds up under any amount of serious scientific scrutiny.
about 1 year ago
NASA has proven it to be a hoax.