Page 3 - 201212 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - December 2012

Beyond 2012: Why the World Didn't End Beyond 2012: Why the World Didn't End From NASA You're reading this story, because the world didn't end on Dec. 21, 2012. Despite reports of an ancient Maya prophecy, a mysterious planet on a collision course with Earth, or a reverse in On Dec. 21, 2012, it is exactly the same: magnitude beyond modern horizons. Earth's rotation, we're still here. 13.0.0.0.0 In the language of Maya scholars, 13 Question (Q): Are there any threats to THE MAYAN CONNECTION: Bak'tuns or 13 times 144,000 days elapsed the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites "The whole thing was a misconception between the two dates. This was a significant say the world will end in December 2012. from the very beginning," says Dr. John interval in Maya theology, but, stresses Carlson, Answer (A):The world will not end in Carlson, director of the Center for not a destructive one. None of the thousands of 2012. Our planet has been getting along just Archaeoastronomy. "The Maya calendar did ruins, tablets, and standing stones that fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible not end on Dec. 21, 2012, and there were no archeologists have examined foretell an end of scientists worldwide know of no threat Maya prophecies foretelling the end of the the world. associated with 2012. world on that date." Modern science agrees. NASA experts The truth, says Carlson, is more recently gathered in a Google hangout to review Q: What is the origin of the prediction interesting than fiction. their own findings with the public. that the world will end in 2012? Carlson is a hard-nosed scientist--a Don Yeomans, head of NASA's Near- A: The story started with claims that radio astronomer who earned his degree Earth Object Program, stated that no known Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the studying distant galaxies. He became interested asteroids or comets are on a collision course Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This in the 2012 phenomenon in the early 70s when with Earth. catastrophe was initially predicted for May he attended a meeting of the American Neither is a rogue planet coming to 2003, but when nothing happened the Association for the Advancement of Science destroy us. "If there were anything out there like doomsday date was moved forward to and learned about the lost civilization of the a planet headed for Earth," said NASA December 2012 and linked to the end of one of Maya. astrobiologist David Morrison, "it would the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the Where the rain forests of Mesoamerica already be [one of the] brightest objects in the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted now stand, a great civilization once flourished. sky. Everybody on Earth could see it. You don't doomsday date of December 21, 2012. The people of Maya society built vast cities, need to ask the government, just go out and ornate temples, and towering pyramids. At its look. It’s not there.” Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in peak around 800 A.D., the population numbered Lika Guhathakurta, head of NASA's December 2012? more than 2,000 people per square mile in the Living with a Star Program, says the sun is not A: Just as the calendar you have on your cities -- comparable to modern Los Angeles a threat, either. "The sun has been flaring for kitchen wall does not cease to exist after County. The Maya mastered astronomy, billions of years--long before the Maya even December 31, the Mayan calendar does not developed an elaborate written language, and existed--and it has never once destroyed the cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date left behind exquisite artifacts. world." is the end of the Mayan long-count period but Most compelling to Carlson was the "Right now the sun is approaching the then -- just as your calendar begins again on Maya's expansive sense of time. "The times maximum of its 11-year activity cycle," she January 1 -- another long-count period begins Mayas used dwarf any time scales currently added, "but this is the wimpiest solar cycle of for the Mayan calendar. used by modern astronomers," he explains. the past 50 years. Reports to the contrary are "According to our science, the Big Bang exaggerated." Q: Is NASA predicting a "total occurred 13.7 billion years ago. What would an ancient Maya think blackout" of Earth on Dec. 23 to Dec. 25? There are dates and time references in about all this hoopla? Carlson believes he A: Absolutely not. Neither NASA nor Mayan ruins that stretch back a billion billion knows the answer. any other scientific organization is predicting times farther than that." "If we could time warp a Maya to the such a blackout. The false reports on this issue The Maya Long Count Calendar was present day, they would say that Dec. 21, 2012, claim that some sort of "alignment of the designed to keep track of such long intervals. "It is a very important date. Many Maya believed Universe" will cause a blackout. There is no is the most complex calendar system ever that their gods who created the world 5125 such alignment (see next question). Some developed by people anywhere." years ago would return. One of them in versions of this rumor cite an emergency Written using modern typography, the particular, an enigmatic deity named Bolon preparedness message from NASA Long Count Calendar resembles the odometer Yokte' K'uh, would conduct old rites of passage, Administrator Charles Bolden. This is simply a in a car. It's a modified base-20 system in which to set space and time in order, and to regenerate message encouraging people to be prepared for rotating digits represent powers of 20 days. the cosmos." The world would be refreshed, not emergencies, recorded as part of a wider Because the digits rotate, the calendar can "roll destroyed. government preparedness campaign. It never over" and repeat itself; this repetition is key to "I have been waiting to experience this mentions a blackout. the 2012 phenomenon. day for more than 30 years," he says. According to Maya theology, the world For him, "experiencing Dec. 21, 2012" (Continues on Page 4) was created 5125 years ago, on a date modern means visiting the Maya homeland in the people would write "August 11, 3114 BC." At Yucatan, and thinking back to the height of The ‘X’ Zone New Year’s Eve Special the time, the Maya calendar looked like this: Maya civilization, when ancient humans 9 pm Dec 31 2012 - 1 am Jan 1 2013 13.0.0.0.0 contemplated expanses of time orders of www.xzoneradiotv.com