2012 and Counting
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A NASA Scientist Answers the Top 20 Questions About 2012
PUBLIC CONCERN ABOUT DOOMSDAY IN December 2012 has blossomed into a major new presence on the Internet. This fear has begun to invade cable TV and Hollywood, and it is rapidly spreading internationally. The hoax originally concerned a return of the fictitious planet Nibiru in 2012, but it received a big boost when conspiracy theory websites began to link it to the end of the Mayan calendar long count at the winter solstice (December 21) of 2012. Over the past year, many unrelated groups have joined the doomsday chorus, including Nostradamus advocates, a wide variety of eschatological Christian, Native American, and spiritualist sects, and those who fear comet and asteroid impacts or violent solar storms. At the time of this writing there are more than 175 books listed on Amazon.com dealing with the 2012 doomsday. The most popular topics are the Mayan calendar and spiritual predictions that the disaster in 2012 will usher in a new age of happiness and spiritual growth. Quite a few authors are cashing in with manuals on how to survive 2012.
As this hoax spreads, many more doomsday scenarios are being suggested, mostly unrelated to Nibiru. These include a reversal of the Earth’s magnetic field, severe solar storms associated with the 11-year solar cycle (which may peak in 2012), a reversal of Earth’s rotation axis, a 90- degree flip of the rotation axis, bombardment by large comets or asteroids, bombardment by gamma rays, or various unspecified lethal rays coming from the center of the Milky Way Galaxy or the “dark rift” seen in a nearby galactic spiral arm. A major theme has become celestial alignments: supposedly the Sun will align with the galactic center (or maybe with the Milky Way Dark Rift) on December 21, 2012, subjecting us to mysterious and potentially deadly forces.
Unlike most pseudoscience stories, there seems to be no factual core on which the Nibiru- 2012 hoax has been constructed. This is different from, for example, the claims of aliens and a crashed UFO at Roswell, New Mexico. The alien stories are a fabrication, but the core fact is that an instrumented balloon did crash in Roswell on July 7, 1947. There is no similar factual core to Nibiru—just dubious “predictions” from psychics, or the Mayans, or Nostradamus. The rest is pure fiction.
I answer questions from the public submitted online to a NASA website, and over the past two years the Nibiru-2012 doomsday has become the dominant topic people ask about. Many are curious about things they have seen on the Internet or TV, but many are also angry about supposed government cover-ups. As one wrote “Why are you lying about Nibiru? Everyone knows it is coming.” Others are genuinely frightened that the world will end just three years from now. My frustration in answering questions piecemeal motivates this “Twenty Questions” format to organize the facts and shine a skeptical light on this accumulation of myths and hoaxes.
1. What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in December 2012?
The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. Zecharia Sitchin, who writes fiction about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, claimed in several books (e.g., The Twelfth Planet, published in 1976) that he has found and translated Sumerian documents that identify the planet Nibiru, orbiting the Sun every 3600 years. These Sumerian fables include stories of “ancient astronauts” visiting Earth from a civilization of aliens called the Anunnaki. Then Nancy Lieder, a self-declared psychic who claims she is channeling aliens, wrote on her website Zetatalk that the inhabitants of a fictional planet around the star Zeta Reticuli warned her that the Earth was in danger from Planet X or Nibiru. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was recalculated (a standard procedure for doomsdayers) and moved forward to December 2012. Only recently have these two fables been linked to the end of the Mayan long-count at the winter solstice in 2012—hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.
2. The Sumerians were the first great civilization, and they made many accurate astronomical predictions, including the existence of the planets Uranus, Neptune and Pluto. So why should we not believe their predictions about Nibiru?
Nibiru is a name from Babylonian astrology sometimes associated with the god Marduk. Nibiru appears as a minor character in the Babylonian creation poem Enuma Elish as recorded in the library of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria (668–627 BCE). Sumer flourished much earlier, from about the 23rd century to the 17th century BCE. The claims that Nibiru is a planet and was known to the Sumerians are contradicted by scholars who (unlike Zecharia Sitchin) study and translate the written records of ancient Mesopotamia. Sumer was indeed a great civilization, important for the development of agriculture, water management, urban life, and especially writing. However, they left few astronomical records and they most certainly did not know about Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. They also had no understanding that the planets orbited the Sun, an idea that first developed in ancient Greece two millennia after the end of Sumer. Claims that Sumerians had a sophisticated astronomy, or that they even had a god named Nibiru, are the product of Sitchin’s imagination.
3. How can you deny the existence of Nibiru when NASA discovered it in 1983 and the story appeared in leading newspapers? At that time you called it Planet X, and later it was named Xena or Eris.
IRAS (the NASA Infrared Astronomy Satellite, which carried out a sky survey for 10 months in 1983) discovered many infrared sources, but none of them was Nibiru or Planet X or any other objects in the outer solar system. Briefly, IRAS cataloged 350,000 infrared sources, and initially many of these sources were unidentified (which was the point, of course, of making such a survey). All of these observations have been followed up by subsequent studies with more powerful instruments both on the ground and in space. The rumor about a “tenth planet” erupted in 1984 after a scientific paper was published in Astrophysical Journal Letters titled “Unidentified point sources in the IRAS minisurvey,” which discussed several infrared sources with “no counterparts.” But these “mystery objects” were subsequently found to be distant galaxies (except one, which was a wisp of “infrared cirrus”), as published in 1987. No IRAS source has ever turned out to be a planet. A good discussion of this whole issue is to be found on Phil Plait’s website. The bottom line is that Nibiru is a myth, with no basis in fact. To an astronomer, persistent claims about a planet that is “nearby” but “invisible” are just plain silly.
4. Maybe we should be asking about Planet X or Eris, not Nibiru. Why does NASA keep secret the orbit of Eris?
“Planet X” is an oxymoron when applied to a real object. The generic term has been used by astronomers over the past century for a possible or suspected object. Once the object is found, it is given a real name, as was done with Pluto and Eris, both of which were once referred to as Planet X. If a new object turns out to be not real, or not a planet, then you won’t hear about it again. If it is real, it is no longer called Planet X. Eris is one of several dwarf planets recently found by astronomers in the outer solar system, all of them on normal orbits that will never bring them near Earth. Like Pluto, Eris is smaller than our Moon. It is very far away, and its orbit never brings it closer than about 4 billion miles. There is no secret about Eris or its orbit, as you can easily verify by googling it or looking it up in Wikipedia.
5. Do you deny that NASA built a South Pole Telescope (SPT) to track Nibiru? Why else would they build a telescope at the South Pole?
There is a telescope at the South Pole, but it was not built by NASA and it is not used to study Nibiru. The South Pole Telescope is supported by the National Science Foundation, and it is a radio telescope, not an optical instrument. It cannot take visible light images or photos. You can look it up on Wikipedia. The Antarctic is a great place for astronomical infrared and short-wave-radio observations, and it also has the advantage that objects can be observed continuously without the interference of the day-night cycle. I should add that it is impossible to imagine a way in which an object can be seen only from the South Pole. Even if it were due south of the Earth, it could be seen from the entire southern hemisphere.
6. There are many photos and videos of Nibiru on the Internet. Isn’t that proof that it exists?
The great majority of the photos and videos on the Internet are of some feature near the Sun (apparently supporting the claim that Nibiru has been hiding behind the Sun for the past several years). These are actually false images of the Sun caused by internal reflections in the lens, often called lens flare. You can identify them easily by the fact that they appear diametrically opposite the real solar image, as if reflected across the center of the image. This is especially obvious in videos, where as the camera moves, the false image dances about always exactly opposite the real image. Similar lens flare is a source of many UFO photos taken at night with strong light sources such as streetlights in the frame. I am surprised that more people don’t recognize this common photo artifact. I am also amazed that these photos showing something nearly as large and bright as the Sun (a “second sun”) are accepted together with claims made on some of the same websites that Nibiru is too faint to be seen or photographed except with large telescopes.
One widely reported telescopic photo shows two views of an expanding gas cloud far beyond the solar system, which is not moving; you can see this from the fact that the stars are the same in both pictures. A sharp-eyed reader on my website identified these photos as a gas shell around the star V838 Mon. Wikipedia has a nice write-up and a beautiful photo of it from the Hubble. Another high school student was initially impressed by posted images of a red blob that were said to be of Nibiru. Then he worked out in his Photoshop class how to make just such pictures starting from scratch. One video posted in summer 2008 on YouTube shows a guy standing in his kitchen claiming that one of the objects discovered by NASA’s x-ray telescope is Nibiru. What is his evidence? That since this false-color x-ray image released by NASA is blue, this must really be a nearby planet with an ocean. This would be hilarious if it were not used to frighten people.
7. Can you explain the fact that the area at (5h 53m 27s, -6 10′ 58″) has been blackened out in Google Sky and Microsoft Telescope? People suggest that these have been blackened out because those are the co-ordinates where Nibiru is located at present.
Several people have asked me about this blank rectangle in Orion in Google Sky, which is a presentation of images from the Sloan Digital Survey. This can’t be a “hiding place” for Nibiru, since it is a part of the sky that could be seen from almost everywhere on the Earth in the winter of 2007–08 when much of the talk about Nibiru began. Plus, that would contradict the claims that Nibiru was hiding behind the Sun or that it could be seen only from the southern hemisphere. But I too was curious about this blank rectangle, so I asked a friend who is a senior scientist at Google. He replied that he “found out that the missing data is due to a processing error in the image stitching program we use to display the Sloan survey images. The team assures me that in the next run through, this will be fixed!”
8. If the government knew about Nibiru, wouldn’t they keep it a secret to avoid panic? Isn’t it the government’s job to keep the population at ease?
There are many objectives of government, but they do not include keeping the population at ease. My experience is that sometimes parts of the government do just the opposite, as in the frequent references to various terrorist threats or warnings about driving accidents on long holiday weekends, which are no more dangerous than any other time. There is a long history of associating bad things with political opponents (older readers will remember the “missile gap” in the 1960 election, younger ones will note the many current references to who is or is not keeping the U.S. safe from terrorists). Further, social scientists have pointed out that many of our concepts of public panic are the product of Hollywood, while in the real world people have a good record of helping each other in a time of danger. I think everyone also recognizes that keeping bad news secret usually backfires, making the issue even worse when the facts finally come out. And in the case of Nibiru, these facts would come out very soon indeed.
Even if it wanted to, however, the government could not keep Nibiru a secret. If Nibiru were real, it would be tracked by thousands of astronomers, amateurs as well as professionals. These astronomers are spread all over the world. I know the astronomy community, and these scientists would not keep a secret even if ordered to. You just can’t hide a planet on its way into the inner solar system!
9. Why does the Mayan calendar say the world will end in 2012? I have heard that they have been pretty accurate in the past with other planetary predictions. How can you be sure you know more than they did?
Calendars exist for keeping track of the passage of time, not for predicting the future. The Mayan astronomers were clever, and they developed a very complex calendar. Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but of course they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use. The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012.
I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31, 2009, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year.
10. What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the Earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours? Does this have something to do with our solar system dipping beneath the galactic equator?
A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. It has never happened and never will. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-switch to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic field of Earth, which does change irregularly with a magnetic reversal taking place, on average, every 400,000 years. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal does not cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway. But the 2012ers falsely claim that a magnetic reversal is coming soon (in 2012 of course) and that this is the same as, or will trigger, a reversal of Earth’s rotational poles. The bottom line is this: (a) rotation direction and magnetic polarity are not related; (b) there is no reason to expect a reversal of magnetic polarity any time soon, or to anticipate any bad effects on life when it does eventually happen; (c) a sudden shift in the rotational pole with disastrous consequences is impossible. Also, none of this has anything to do with the galactic equator or any of the other nonsense about alignments that appears on many of the doomsday websites.
11. When most of the planets align in 2012 and planet Earth is in the center of the Milky Way, what will the effects of this be on planet Earth? Could it cause a pole shift, and if so what could we expect?
There is no planet alignment in 2012 or any other time in the next several decades. As to the Earth being in the center of the Milky Way, I don’t know what this phrase means. If they are referring to the Milky Way Galaxy, we are some 30,000 light years from the center of this spiral galaxy. We circle the galactic center in a period of 225–250 million years, always keeping approximately the same distance. Concerning a pole shift, I also don’t know what this means. If it means some sudden change in the position of the pole (that is, the rotation axis of the Earth), then that is impossible, as noted above. What many websites do discuss is the alignment of the Earth and Sun with the center of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. This happens every December, with no bad consequences, and there is no reason to expect 2012 to be different from any other year.
12. When the Sun and the Earth line up on the galactic plane at the same time with the black hole being in the center couldn’t that cause something to happen, due to the fact that the black hole has such a strong gravitational pull?
There is a supermassive black hole at the center of our galaxy, and like any concentration of mass it exerts gravitational force on the rest of the galaxy. However, the galactic center is very far away, approximately 30,000 light years, so it has negligible effects on our solar system and Earth. There are no special forces from the galactic plane or the galactic center. The only important force that acts on the Earth is the gravitation of the Sun and Moon. As far as the influence of the galactic plane, there is nothing special about this location. The last time the Earth was in the galactic plane was several million years ago. Claims that we are about to cross the galactic plane are untrue.
13. I am scared about the fact that the Earth will enter the Dark Rift in the Milky Way. What will this do? Will the Earth be swallowed up?
The “dark rift” is a popular name for the broad and diffuse dust clouds in the inner arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, which block our view of the galactic center. The entire “galactic alignment” scare is ridiculous. Late in December the Sun is always approximately in the direction of the center of the Galaxy as seen from the Earth, but so what? Apparently the scaremongers have decided to use these meaningless phrases about “alignments” and the “dark rift” and “photon belt” precisely because they are not understood by the public. As far as the safety of the Earth is concerned, the important threats are from global warming and loss of biological diversity, and perhaps someday from collision with an asteroid or comet, not the pseudoscientific claims about 2012.
14. I have heard that the Earth’s magnetic field will flip in 2012 just when the strongest level of solar storms in history is predicted to take place. Will this kill us or destroy our civilization?
Near solar maximum (which happens approximately every 11 years), there are many more solar flares and coronal mass ejections than near solar minimum. Flares and mass ejections are no danger for humans or other life on Earth. They could endanger astronauts in deep space or on the Moon, and this is something that NASA must learn to deal with, but it is not a problem for us. Large outbursts can interrupt radio transmissions, cause bright displays of the aurora (Northern and Southern Lights), and damage the electronics of some satellites in space. Today many satellites are designed to deal with this possibility, for example by switching off some of their more delicate circuits and going into a “safe” mode for a few hours. In extreme cases solar activity can also disrupt electrical transmissions on the ground, possibly leading to electrical blackouts, but this is rare.
The last solar maximum occurred in 2001, so the next one was predicted for around 2012, 11 years later. However, the most recent solar minimum was unusual, with a period of a couple of years with almost no sunspots or other indications of solar activity, so scientists now guess that the next maximum will be delayed, perhaps to 2013. However, the details of the solar cycle remain basically unpredictable.
It is true that the Earth’s magnetic field protects us by creating a large region in space, called the Earth’s magnetosphere, within which most of the material ejected from the Sun is captured or deflected, but there is no reason to expect a reversal of magnetic polarity any time soon. These magnetic reversals happen, on average, only once in 400,000 years.
15. I am confused about a report on the Fox News website that in 2012 a “Powerful Solar Storm Could Shut Down U.S. for Months.” They referred to a report from the National Academy of Sciences that was commissioned and paid for by NASA. If nothing is going to happen as a result of the event in 2012, why would NASA allow such nonsense to be reported?
NASA is pleased with the National Research Council report on heliophysics. As noted, this report includes a worst-case analysis of what could happen today if there were a repetition of the biggest solar storm ever recorded (in 1859). The problem is the way such information can be used out of context. There is no reason to expect such a large solar storm in the near future, certainly not in 2012 specifically. The reference to “the event in 2012” illustrates this problem. There is no prediction of an “event in 2012.” We don’t even know if the next solar maximum will take place in that year. The whole 2012 disaster scenario is a hoax, fueled by ads for the Hollywood science-fiction disaster film 2012. I can only hope that most people are able to distinguish Hollywood film plots from reality.
16. All my school friends are telling me that we are all going to die in the year 2012 due to a meteor hitting Earth. Is this true?
The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids (as has the Moon, as you can see because it has no atmosphere to erode the impact craters), although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website, so anyone can see that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.
17. If Nibiru is a hoax, why doesn’t NASA issue a denial? How can you permit these stories to circulate and frighten people? Why doesn’t the U.S. government do something about it!
If you go to the NASA home page, nasa.gov, you will see many stories that expose the Nibiru-2012 hoax. Try searching nasa.com under “Nibiru” or “2012”. There is not much more that NASA can do. These hoaxes have nothing to do with NASA and are not based on NASA data, so we as an agency are not directly involved. But scientists, both within NASA and outside, recognize that this hoax with its effort to frighten people is a distraction from more important scientific concerns, such as global warming and loss of biological diversity. We live in a country where there is freedom of speech, and that includes the freedom to lie. We should be glad there are no censors. But if we will use common sense we can recognize the lies. As we approach 2012, the lies will be come even more obvious.
18. Can you prove to me that Nibiru is a hoax? There are so many reports that something terrible will happen in 2012. I need proof because the government and NASA are keeping so much from us.
Such questions should be put to the doomsday advocates to prove that what they are saying is true, not to NASA to prove it is false. If someone claimed on the Internet that there were 50-foot tall purple elephants walking through Cleveland, would anyone expect NASA to prove this wrong? The burden of proof falls on those who make wild claims. Remember the often-quoted comment from Carl Sagan that extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
However, I think that astronomers have reached the point where we can offer extremely strong arguments that Nibiru does not exist. A large planet (or a brown dwarf) in our solar system would have been known to astronomers for many years, both indirectly from its gravitational perturbations on other objects and by direct detection in the infrared. The NASA Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) carried out the first allsky survey in 1983, and several subsequent surveys would also have seen Nibiru if it were there. Further, if a large mass passed through the inner solar system every 3600 years, we would see its disruptive effects on the orbits of the inner planets, and we don’t.
But don’t take my word for it. Just use common sense. Have you seen Nibiru? In 2008 many websites said it would be visible to the naked eye in spring 2009. If a large planet or brown dwarf were headed for the inner solar system in 2012, it would already be tracked by thousands of astronomers, both professional and amateur, all over the world. Do you know any amateur astronomers who are watching it? Have you seen any photos or discussion of it in the big popular astronomy magazines such as Astronomy or Sky & Telescope? Just think about it. No one could hide something like Nibiru if it existed.
19. What about the scary ads for the new film 2012? They tell us to look at these Internet sites to verify the doomsday threat.
The pseudoscientific claims about Nibiru and a doomsday in 2012, together with distrust of the government, are being amplified by publicity for the new film from Columbia Pictures titled 2012, to be released in November 2009. The film’s trailer, appearing in theaters and on their website, shows a tidal wave breaking over the Himalayas, with the following words: “How would the governments of our planet prepare 6 billion people for the end of the world? [long pause] They wouldn’t. [long pause] Find out the Truth. Google search 2012.”
The film publicity includes a faux scientific website for “The Institute for Human Continuity”, which is entirely fictitious. According to this website, the IHC is dedicated to scientific research and public preparedness. Its mission is the survival of humanity. The website explains that the Institute was founded in 1978 by international leaders of government, business, and science. They say that in 2004, IHC scientists confirmed with 94% certainty that the world would be destroyed in 2012. This website encourages people to register for a lottery to select those who will be saved; a colleague submitted the name of her cat, which was accepted. According to Wikipedia, creating this sort of fake website is a new advertising technique called “Viral Marketing,” by analogy with computer viruses.
20. Is it possible that the influx of questions you describe is part of some kind of campaign for a book or movie, in the hopes that the volume of denials is taken as more “evidence” that there is a conspiracy?
I ask myself the same questions every day, as the volume of mail I receive about Nibiru (along with various alignments and pole shifts) keeps increasing—now more than 20 per week. Clearly there is money to be made from people’s fear about an approaching doomsday. Many websites are selling books and tapes about Nibiru or even “survival kits.” It is all very sad, given the many real issues such as global warming and the financial collapse on which our attentions should be focused. In the final chapter of a new astronomy book (The Hunt for Planet X) Govert Shilling writes: “There is plenty to do for the debunkers—the archaeologists and astronomers who take a long and skeptical look at the tidal wave of Nibiru nonsense and explain with scientific precision what is wrong with this cosmic fairy-tale. They will have their work cut out in the next few years. And on December 22, 2012 there will be a new pseudoscientific cock-and-bull story making the rounds and the whole circus will start all over again, because no matter how many new celestial bodies are found in our solar system, there will always be a need for a mysterious Planet X.”
About the author
Dr. David Morrison is the Director of the NASA Lunar Science Institute and Senior Scientist in the NASA Astrobiology Institute. Dr. Morrison received his Ph.D. in astronomy from Harvard University (where Carl Sagan was his thesis advisor) and has spent most of his career working in planetary science and astrobiology. He is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and of the California Academy of Sciences. He is recipient of the Dryden Medal for research of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and the Sagan Medal of the American Astronomical Society for public communication. Morrison is a leading skeptic and proponent of improving science education and literacy. Asteroid 2410 Morrison is named in his honor.
This article can be found in
volume 15 number 2
2012 — The End of the World Again?
this issue includes: A NASA Scientist Answers the Top 20 Questions About 2012; Large Hadron Collider: Will Physicists Destroy the World? Pro & Con; Why Atheism & IQs Are Rising; Skepdoc on Chiropractic; Coriolis Effect Myth; Thetis Lake Monster…
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An excellent article. Thank you.
I’ve read that migratory birds might be unable to effectively navigate during a magnetic pole switch or at least that their migratory patterns could be affected in potentially adverse ways. It certainly wouldn’t be the inter-species biological catastrophe purported by many websites, but it wouldn’t occur without significant effects to some animals.
One might expect such an over-simplification from an evil mammoth.
I am hoping when you say “severe solar storms associated with the 11-year solar cycle (which may peak in 2012),” that you are speaking of the folks whose views need debunking. The current situation is that we should be on our way up from the bottom of the approximately 11-year cycle. But the spots are staying very low in number, causing folks to begin to think we might be having another Maunder Minimum situation. [Now, don't all you conspiracy nuts get excited about this.] I’m really just stating that there is precious little possibility that the new sunspot cycle COULD peak in 2012.
What a fantastic article! It should really be a must-read for everyone. I’m an astronomy student from Chile and I’ve been asked countless times, by friends or younger siblings, about what will happen on 2012. There is really a LOT of people who believe all this nonsense, with absolutely no scientific background or explanation. What really surprises me is the lack of curiosity of some people, the lack of plain, cold-headed thinking. The facts make it absolutely clear that all this 2012 and Nibiru stuff is nothing but a myth.
I hope you don’t mind if I translate this article to spanish and e-mail it to a few people, so that they can finally open their eyes and relax about their 2012 worries!
Once again, thank you for a great article!
they tell you what they want you to hear to makes everything sound so much better before you say you don’t believe it have you every went and actually looked it up and study.
So proof is needed to prove a paranoid “theory” is not true but no proof is required to believe them in the first place?
Belief doesn’t require proof, nor even truth. Belief needs no basis in reality.
penitent-
“belief doesn’t require proof, nor even truth. Belief needs no basis in reality.”??? what does that mean and how is it related to anything?? the 2012 theory is an overhyped THEORY, not fact. i remember June 6th, 2006, when it was supposed to be the end of the world. I also remember 2000, and many other days where the world was supposed to end. Just the same,if the government already knows all of this, then why do we continue to build and better our cities if we are just going to lose it in the end? all i know is, december 21st, 2012, will be just another winter day.
Thanks very much for publishing this very important article on the web. I hope many people can read it and come back down to earth.
I want to know more about these 50-foot tall purple elephants walking through Cleveland. Why is NASA hiding this from us?
You have discovered one of the most basic tenets of a conspiracy. Make a claim that cannot be confirmed because there is no physical evidence, then claim the lack of evidence is proof of a conspiracy. It’s a perfect machine.
Since NASA has not reported the existence of purple giants, a rogue planet, or the existence of giant space squid, they must be hiding their existence from the public.
I heard one of them just signed with the Browns.
I am also very worried about these elephants, have there been any other reports or are they being hidden from us. Have they entered any rooms.
I have heard that people often miss seeing an elephant when it is in a room. Is Cleveland a room, is Cleveland perhaps a portal to a purple elephant hole.
I particularly appreciated Dr Morrison’s comments regarding paying attention to real issues such as loss of bio-diversity and the manipulation of populations by promoting fear. As for the movie 2012 when I watched it I assumed it was made by fundamentalist christian amateur film makers who had by some biblical miracle stumbled upon a significant enough production budget to entertain their own fantasies of Armageddon. In other words it is mind numbing rubbish. Thankfully the 2012 film spared us from images of arabs driving cars with 666 numberplates but it was not far removed.
Thank you for a great article.
I know a few people that have observed those purple elephants – but they require the assistance of a quart or more of ‘Old Rotgut’ to bring them into focus. They also report they have the ability to disguise themselves as PINK elephants – and a few as 6 foot tall rabbits named Harvey.
Thanks for a great article. My stepson is going crazy about the movie (he did the same thing with ‘The Blaire Witch Project’) and I’ll point him to the article. It may not convince him, but it may educate him a little when yet another profit-fueled disaster delusion does not take place.
Thank you.I have spent two days researching this.But, I did find the NASA website which is interesting.
I too applaud you on a truly excellent debunking of this insane and irrational Doomsday story.
I have read some of Sitchen’s Books, and while I find them to be quite entertaining I also recognize them as the pseudo-science fiction that they are.
That having been said, I do find it worrysome that after all the recent revalations about the lies, data manipulation, data destruction and un-scientific cherry picking of other so-called ‘scientificaly proven’ test results, you continue to mention ‘Global Warming’ as if it WERE in fact ‘scientificaly proven’, when you mention it in your article 2 or 3 times as something people should really be worried about.
Do you not see the contradiction inherent in Debunking the Nibiru 2012 Doomsday fantasy and at the same time putting forth the Global Warming doomsday fantasy as fact in the same article? Or is it really too much to ask that a ‘Scientist’
be Scientificaly consistant and logical?
Learn how to spell CONSISTENTLY, and stop watching Fox news! Science doesn’t prove, but provides evidence that suggests. Scientists overwhelmingly confirm that the evidence suggests global warming is a legitimate phenomenon and that human activity is a significant factor. Of course you can find a few fringe scientists who do not support the consensus (right wing tokens), but you can also find some who argue that the Earth is flat…
I seem to recall a doomsday “theory” regarding 2000 being the worlds “end” too.
What malarkey filled rubbish! sheesh! -rolls eyes-
Why has nobody asked about the intense gamma rays that shoot out along the galactic equator which we will be passing through on the date? And you can’t deny the ancient petroglyphs depicting the last time this particular event occured 10000 years ago. I don’t think everybody is going to die but i do think a lot of people will from the radiation. Russia is already building a massive shelter at yumantau (not that that would really help) so im curious of the timing. I would believe this guy as much as id believe the soap in my shower. Because we all know how reliable NASA is and how much they havent fucked up in the last 50 years. and to blazeeagle the 2000 event has been analysed and found to be mathematically miscalculated. the actual date was supposed to be 2012. There is too much coincidence in the whole thing for it to be passed off as a conspiracy theory. nobody that has the right to comment on the subject has said its a doomsday. its just an unknowable and scary event for modern humans
“There is too much coincidence in the whole thing…”
None of this is coincidental. Most of it was purposely done or presumed that it will occur on 2012 in order to perpetuate the armageddon hoax. Have you ever thought about that before? That one person said “IT WILL HAPPEN ON THIS DAY” and people copy-catted that person to the point that everyone believed it.
It is interesting though that you trust doomsdayers before you would trust NASA. I’m not sure where you got your information on the galactic equator bombarding us with gamma rays…
Since when did assumptions and Russian secret facilities (which people believe is a nuclear test facility given its proximity to a nuclear lab) still don’t amount to credible evidence.
If you would have read the article maybe you would have seen Carl Sagan’s famous quote, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.”
“and to blazeeagle the 2000 event has been analysed and found to be mathematically miscalculated. the actual date was supposed to be 2012.”
Yeah… and 2001… and 2016…. and 2036… and and and…..
Funny how no-one figured out 2000 was a “mathematical miscalculation” until AFTER the date had passed, huh?
Here’s a task for you… next time you’re out on a clear night, go look for the “Galactic Equator”… take a camera with you, and post what you find online somewhere – if memory serves, you’ll find it somewhere in the vicinity of Uranus…
You seem to have stepped out of the bounds of reality. Shane! Come back Shane!
If 2012 is all a scam, why does it seem that many governments are preparing for some devastating up coming future events?
1. Seed Banks being stored underground
2. Books and Art being moved underground
3. Large underground bunkers being built
It’s all been happening recently, and perhaps the reason for the “world recession” is because the elite have been spending all the money preparing for this up coming event?
I never believed the Nibiru theory, but I still think there is more to 2012 then we are all led to believe and will not be at ease until the year comes and goes with out incident.
How would storing seeds, art and people underground save you from a PLANET colliding with Earth?????
Which “books and art being moved underground” would that be then?
No, really Jeff. I’ve read about that. Oh wait… That was a sci-fi.
You would think that all the wealthy spending money building giant complexes would have a positive impact on the economy rather than a negative one.
With this failure in mind, I suggest you go back and “recalculate” to fit your facts to a more watertight, albeit bogus, theory.
And when 2012 passes without incident and you forget all about it on January 1st, 2013 (or December 22nd, 2012 for that matter), what will you be afraid of next?
There is no reasoning with the unreasonable!!!
James, the reason the goverment did and is still doing all of those things is fairly simple, nuclear weapons.
In case we get nuked all the stuff we need will be safe under gound, well they hope it will be safe underground.
This could be wrong but it is far more likely than them preparing for the end of the world.
As an indication of the commitment of a “believer” to the concept, one of our better-known Skeptics should make Mr. Sitchen an offer, very publicly: “Mr. Sitchin, I offer you a legal contract, the terms of which call for me to pay you $10,000 now if, on December 22, 2012, you will pay me one million dollars in return.” If he truly believes, he’ll think that the world will end before he has to repay, and should jump at this chance. If he doesn’t believe, he wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole.
This approach could apply to other “believers” too, with appropriate adjustments of the amounts to fit the situation. ;-)
I am just curious as to all these strange weather that the world has been having like the tonados,floods,earthquakes, and the erupting of volcanoes.
That’s not strange weather, kido. Those things have been happenining for millions of years! The only reason you think it’s strange is because news casters dwell on disasters more now than ever. But there are no more or less natural disasters occuring now than in any previous century or mellenia.
That and as the world population increases and population density rises the odds of severe weather striking populated areas also increases.
There will always be a new prediction date for the end of the world. But think of it. Sure, maybe you can say the world MAY end soon because of nuclear cotastrophe, or whatever the big threat may be, but that’s logical. I remember when a teacher told me that Planet X was going to crash in to the world in (I can’t remember) 03 or 05. I just thought, what a fucking idiot. And guess who was right?
It’s like predicting your own date of death. Unless you’re going to kill yourself or someone told you they are going to come shoot you, or have a terminal illness, any claim to be made is false.
Thanks for this enlightemning article. The “Winter Solstice” deadline for destruction should always start alarm bells ringing. The obvious question begs: Does this imply two waves of destruction, or will the Southern hemisphere be spared? The doomsdayers answer to that would be “interesting” to say the least.
Thanks for the article!
I’m thinking about the following. While internet becomes more and more conductive for fast spreading of ideas, hoaxes and memes viruses – the resistance of the medium should compensate. So, the role of the Science and Education and weight of those in the Internet should increase proportionally with the conductivity increase, otherwise we’ll come to new Middle Ages sooner or later. Why? Any new hoax (under unlimited conductivity) will be causing panic, crises etc and governments will start regulation of the medium. But the right way is to increase the role of Education (studying of the scientific method, epistemology etc) in school – not to have so many people believing into analogs of flying kettles – even among educated Engineers.
should explain here about the engineers.
As I noticed, university grads, post grads are more immunized against hoaxes than engineers (all my friends who were trying seriously – to explain me ideas acceleration of time, influence of stones or matching of religion with science – where engineers, who are people who are very creative on ideas, but lacking philosophy, epistemology, scientific method university courses, i.e. basis for building of the science. Most were not knowing who is Popper until I explained the principle of falsifiability and list of fallacies from the basic logic university course).
Hoaxes, conspriacys, myths vs “proper” scientific methods: it remains an easy step to argue from authority and to wrongfully lable so many pioneer researchers as “junk scientist”. Indeed that is exactly how we as a human race contrived the notion the earth was flat and our solar system remain a geocentric view.Exploration of truth and knowledge and what is percieved reality allowed many great thinkers (here is my arguement of authority) like Einstien to uncover a fresh way to view thoughts. Remian in a box and become static or open up to the greater possbilties. Fractals, uncertainty principle, junk DNA…so many unanswered and exciting horizons…why condem an hypotheisis before the prove is in the pudding….leave your box and open your mind.
You shouldn’t open your mind to the point where your brain is in danger of falling out! While it’s absolutely true that scientific leaps (Einstein, Schrodinger, Darwin, etc.) often meets with resistance initially, opponents are responsible for saying “But what about…?” and “But wouldn’t that mean…?” and so on. Someone who is truly in search of the truth, who is confronted with such questions, will honestly face them and either find answers to them or, eventually, give up the theory. Have the proponents of 2012 disaster done that? I think the answer to why is clear…they are out to sell books or movies, or have some other vested interest (possibly just personal satisfaction at being noticed and listened to). They are not on an honest search for truth.
Here are necessary freedoms including freedom of speech are coming into play.
Nobody should be able to restrict a scientist (as it had been in the Middle Ages) – to freely publish any crazy unproved idea. But it will be up to the scientist’s reputation. And if it is a real scientist – he will publish the hypothesis in a scientific journal in a proper form (Abstract, …), together with the method and procedures – how to test it and which future observations might disprove the hypothesis (show the falsifiability of the hypothesis).
And non-scientific public (what I’ve mentioned above) must clearly understand (from the school) the boundary between the real science and speculations in yellow press, and should know – where to search – for serious and reliable information.
Hoaxes, conspiracies, myths – are rather on the cultural/spiritual side of the human being activity, the same as religion, where falsifiability, testability etc are not necessary. Scientific method with it’s necessary steps and strict format of ideas presenting to the public (in a respectful or not so scientific journal rather than home pages or blogs) – should be clearly demarcated.
This does not mean, although, that a real scientist can’t publish a crazy idea in her blog. Again – it’s up to his/her name’s reputation. But an hysteria (about next date of the end of the world, a big comet arriving or a financial bubble coming tomorrow) can be justified (and so – attention to it is undertaken by organizations and people) – only based only on a respectful source, and such source for scientific information – is scientific magazines/journals only. General public must know this. As well as the “falsifiability”/”testability” terms. That way there will be much less waves of hoaxes in today’s very powerful info medium.
I must have been living in one of those underground bunkers because this is the first I’d heard of this ‘Nibiru disaster’. Quite simply, it’s up to the propagators of the idea to produce valid, testable evidence to support the claims; it’s not up to NASA, the government, me or anyone else to disprove it.
While I’m happy to believe that there are things that various governments would prefer we didn’t know, usually for reasons of security or military secrecy, they’d find it very difficult to hide a planet sized body on a collision course with Earth – especially one close enough to hit within a couple of years. Somebody outside the establishment would leak it in no time flat, and plenty of amateur astronomers would find it within hours.
Basic rule with any of these things is the burden of proof; it’s up to you to prove it IS, not up to me to prove it isn’t. Or, to put it more simply – put up or shut up!
Your right, I believe in Nibiru when I can go outside at night and see it for myself. I mean, I love stories about Ancient Astronauts and you must keep an open mind.
But please, Let’s use our Common Sense. Religion has let us astray for millenia,with believing silly things, which are simply impossible.
So, lets stick to science and nothing else!!!
And see you at 2013-01-01
Roland
(from the Netherlands)
I don’t know. I still believe that 2012 is coming. I mean, every year from 1 to 2010 has come and gone, so why was 2012 canceled?
I thank you Dr. Morrison for your extrondianry work. I have already predictd 2012 will be the beginning of a new world, not the end.
I do 100% agree that the this is nothing more than a social scare, but something above did catch my attention. Question # 9 I believe, you wrote:
Why does the Mayan calendar say the world will end in 2012?
Forgive me for being curious, but I don’t think I saw an actual answer to that and I would really like to know what your interpretation is.
thanks!
Dave
Are you kidding? The Mayan calendar does not predict the world will end in 2012. Go back and read the answer to question 1. And then read the answers to all of the questions again too.
check this link:
http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm
according to this, since 1979, I survived no less than 90 Apocalypse. So… guess what, Mayans? I’m not afraid of your fancy 2012!!!
This is the best case for 2012 becoming a reality that I’ve ever found and I wanted to share it. http://i.imgur.com/gBMMs.jpg
Only God knows when the earth is going to end. if 2012 is the year than its the year. I really dont think its the end of the world but that people are greedy for money and gullible people will fall for a hoax. Very good article also.
God Bless
mikejordan.
God? what makes you think some figment of man knows anything.
might as well say the easter bunny knows when the earth is going to end.
If somebody will try to convince you that the end of the world will be in (any date here) then ask them to sign a deal stating that you will become a rightfull legal owner of everything they have on a day right after “the end”. If they really believe it, there’s no risk for them, but they only want you to buy their books or DVDs. Unfortunatly it’s been used the other way – more & more people buy stuff they can’t afford (and don’t really need) on credit with 1st payment delayed till 2013, believing they will not have to pay it.
The world will not end on December 21,2012 the Mayan Calendar predicts it will but it won’t, just because we say its going to end means its going to end. I will feel really bad for people who kill themselves because they think it will end it will be a normal and regular day like any other day… :)
A great article which we fully support.
… Noah Dawkins
this article is the biggest bull crap ever. and those who believe nasa tellin the truth are just plain morons how does billions of dollars type program that us tax payers pay towards seem to have a problem right in that exact spot. they replied (question 7) “found out that the missing data is due to a processing error in the image stitching program we use….i think thats just one cover up. look at the effects of what they claims is happening or about to happening go and look that the increasing of earthquakes since 2008 in the last 7 days we have had 1012 earthquakes just in the 48 states not include in Alaska or Hawaii http://earthquake.usgs.gov/earthquakes/recenteqsus/,almost every super volcano and hot spots are erupting ,solar storms ,the fact july 2010 was the hottest month on record for planet earth, …..im just saying whats the chance out innocent goverment is not lieing to us again. they would never do that
So don’t believe in Nibiru it doesn’t exist but Gods do…Christian God, Islamic God, Hindu God, Buddhist God…etc.
Besides all of this stuff, which can’t be proven either way in most cases, I’d like to know how the stones where cut at Puma Punku. I know it has little to do with the end of the world but i have yet to see Sceptic come up with anything decent about it.
I too would love to hear some arrogant writer from Skeptic Magazine explain Puma Punku. I mean, they know everything right? With a modicum of critical thinking skills that you could develop at any research institution, they’ve achieved an air of certainty rivaled only by God. Neigh, surpassing God! Mysteries begone! We have… “The Skeptic.” Ooo! They could have their own series of infomercials, sure we can sell “Certitude,” I can see it now! “Boom, mystery begone!” That’ll be the tag-line. In a few months we can sell, “New and improved, Certitude Plus!” I know what you’re thinking, perhaps an infomercial series is too pedestrian… Yeah, these people get paid big bucks to overlook all sorts of evidence! Perhaps we should start building temples to honor them? But that will never happen, because they have more “knowledge” than “understanding” and temples are rarely built to honor those with simply knowledge. They are more frequently built to honor those who demonstrate wisdom. Suffice it to say that the Skeptic will avoid scrutinizing Puma Punku at all costs because it would require humility and rabid skepticism rarely begets humility.
Oh, but lest I forget, pay no attention to the overwhelming evidence of water erosion on the walls of the enclosure surrounding the Sphinx, that’s a figment of your imagination, you’ve probably been munching peyote buttons like the unenlightened sheep you are. Silly sheep, don’t you know that enlightenment and certainty are only to be found in books? Don’t you know that time flows just as you perceive it, through your fleshy vehicle with its flawless sensory apparata? [Sorry, "apparatuses" is a stupid word, I refuse to use it.] Pay no attention to those megalithic granite and diorite blocks that appear to have been cut by modern CNC machines 17,000 years ago! Those were cut laboriously by master artisans the likes of which the world has never known over a thousand years using petrified pine needles from a bygone prehistoric era… and chewing gum… I told you to stay away from those peyote buttons sheep! Listen to the scientist who is paid the most or is featured on FOX News or USA Today or… Myth Busters. Oops, I left out the Skeptic, my bad the Skeptic, but that’s it! Above all, pay absolutely no attention to conflicting data, especially the sort that you can, see, hear, and touch for yourself!
i really don’t know how to respond too people informing others that the world will end in 2012. anyway, the only thing i can do is to tell a joke: two men walking about in the village park, holding placards saying “repent for the world will perish tomorrow”. they talk to every person who would care to listen. when the sun went down, one said to the other…”ok, friend. time to go home. see you again here tomorrow at the same time”.
i hope i delivered it right. english is not my primary language. cheers!