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       	                               5.5 -90  ::8=0-B      C#C C E=         Nibiru and Doomsday                          point,  planes  would  be  crashing  because  of  accompanied by a giant invisible object and that          2012: Questions and                         incorrect  GPS  readings,  and  it  would  be  the  these  disasters  could  happen  any  day.  Others                                                      biggest news story of the century. These claims                                                                                                      said  the  comet  never  existed  but  was  a  false                    Answers                           on obscure Internet sites are obviously wrong.  rumor  spread  by  the  government  to  distract                                                                                                      attention from Nibiru. This may be a preview of                                                      17. Comet Elenin was widely believed to be a    what we can expect  in  December 2012, when             Continued from Page 11                   threat  when  it  passed  by  in  September-    many  conspiracy  nuts  will  likely  continue  to                                                      October  2011.  Some  people  on  the  Internet  claim that Nibiru will destroy the Earth right up     15. All my school friends are telling me that    said  it  was  on  the  same  orbit  as  Nibiru,  or  to (or beyond) December 21.     we are all going to die in the year 2012 due to  that  Nibiru  was  moving  with  it  or  hidden     a meteor hitting earth. Is this true?            behind it. What happened to Comet Elenin?       18. If Nibiru is not real, then why are all these                                                                                                      terrible  things  happening  in  2012?  There     Your friends are wrong. The Earth has always     Comet Elenin attracted a great deal of attention  must  be  some  explanation  for  the     been  subject  to  impacts  by  comets  and      from pseudo-scientists and conspiracy theorists.  earthquakes, floods, storms, solar outbursts,     asteroids,  although  big  hits  are  very  rare. The  Discovered  in December 2010, it was a small  and  rising  temperatures  our  planet  is     last big impact was 65 million years ago, and    long-period comet, less than 4 km in diameter,  experiencing.     that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today  that fell apart when it got close to the Sun. Yet     NASA  astronomers  are  carrying  out  a  survey  during the months leading up to perihelion, the  Over the four years that I have been answering     called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large   attention  of  many  of  the  true  believers  in  questions  on  this  topic,  each  of  the  predicted     near-Earth  asteroids  long  before  they  hit.  We  doomsday  2012  shifted  their  attention  to  this  2012  disasters  has  been  shown  to  be  wrong.     have  already  determined  that  there  are  no  little  comet,  claiming  that  it  endangered  the  Nibiru  (or  any  other  rogue  planet)  obviously     threatening  asteroids  as  large  as  the  one  that  Earth. The first crazy rumor was that it was not  does not exist, since if it were real we could see     killed  the  dinosaurs.  All  this  work  is  done  really  discovered  by  Russian  astronomer  it and feel the effects of its gravity. You could     openly with the discoveries posted every day on  Leonid Elenin. but that the name Elenin stood   not  hide  it  from  the  more  than  10,000     the  NASA  NEO  Program  Office  website         for  ELE=Extinction  Level  Event  and          professional and 100,000 amateur astronomers.     http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov,  so  you  can  see  for  NIN=Nibiru Is Near. Then websites announced    And there will be no planet alignment in 2012     yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.  that it triggered  the giant Japanese earthquake  — that is a plain lie. The Earth’s magnetic flied                                                      and tsunami in March, and therefore it must be  is not headed for a reversal, while large shifts in     16. There  are  many  reports  of  shifts  in  the  extremely massive – perhaps not a comet at all  the rotational pole are impossible. Solar activity     Earth’s axis (pole shifts). In 2010 several U.S.  but something like a brown dwarf. Of course,   is below normal, and the next solar maximum     airports  had  to  be  realigned  because  the   scientists knew Elenin was a comet and not a    will  not  happen  until  2013. Although  we  had     directions had shifted. The sun appeared two     massive object like a brown dwarf. First, Elenin  one exceptionally large earthquake in Japan this     days early in Greenland this year, and many      fits  the  definition  of  a  comet:  It  was  a  solar  year,  overall  there  has  been  no  increase  in     people say the positions of sunrise and sunset   system  object  with  an  elongated  (eccentric)  earthquakes  worldwide.  It  is  interesting  how     are different from any time it the paste. Fox    orbit that was outgassing a tenuous atmosphere  many  people  who  write  to  me  don’t  seem  to     news recently reported that a pole shift was     (coma)  and  tail  as  it  approached  the  Sun.  realize that astronomers and space scientists and     to blame for the geese flying east. Are these    Comets  are  defined  operationally  by  the    geologists  are  constantly  monitoring  and     warnings of coming disaster in 2012?             presence of the visible coma and tail. Second,  recording  what  happens  to  the  Earth,  and  any                                                      Elenin could not possibly be a massive object   deviation would be immediately detected. The     When  people  make  claims  about  pole  shifts,  like a brown dwarf. If it were, it would not have  one  real  change  is  global  warming,  as  is  well     you  need  to  ask  if  they  are  talking  about  the  a coma or tail, since the gas cannot escape from  documented by science. That helps explain the     rotational  pole  or  the  magnetic  pole.  The  an object with substantial gravity. In addition, if  increase in storms and floods. And we know the     directions North and South (and also East and    it  were  massive  we  would  by  then  have    cause,  which  is  the  rising  concentration  of     West) are defined by the rotation of the Earth.  experienced  its  gravitational  influence  on  the  carbon  dioxide  in  the  atmosphere. All  we  are     The North Pole on Earth is the projection of the  orbits of the planets, especially Mars and Earth  left with for 2012 is a vague concern about the     axis around which the Earth rotates, and east is  (See Question 12). Finally, if it were a brown  roll-over  in  the  Mayan  calendar,  and  scholars     defined as the direction toward which the earth  dwarf  it  would  have  been  easily  detected  in  can’t  even  agree  on  what  year  that  happens.     rotates.  All  this  was  known  before  Earth’s  various  previous  astronomical  surveys,  even  Doomsday  is  not  real,  but  people’s  fear     magnetic  field  was  discovered  or  magnetic   when it was still in the far outer solar system.  promoted  by  countless  websites  and YouTube     compasses were invented. The magnetic poles      During the summer of 2011, Elenin remained      videos is unfortunately very real, and especially     are not in the same place as the rotational poles,  faint,  and  conspiracy websites accused NASA  harmful for children.     and  they  move  around  on  the  surface.  A    of a cover-up (not knowing, apparently, that it is     compass therefore does not point to true north.  the amateur astronomy community, not NASA,                             (Continued on Page 14)     This drifting of the magnetic poles required the  who photograph faint comets and measure their           THE ORIGIN OF CUSTOMS     renaming  (not  the  reorientation)  of  several  positions). Meanwhile, it was widely predicted     runways at small airports that still use magnetic  on  the  Internet  that  Elenin  would  do  terrible  TIPPING:     headings. If the magnetic poles moved a large    damage to the Earth when it came close in late          Some  think  it  began  when  some     amount, or even if the magnetic field reversed,  September. (The fact is that it never came closer  restaurants had boxes labelled T.I.P. - To Insure     we would have to recalibrate the directions on   than a hundred times the distance to the Moon.)  Promptness - on the wall beside their entrances.     our  magnetic  compasses,  but  everything  else  The  usual  claims  were  made  about  triggering  Patrons  who  wanted  their  food  in  a  hurry     would stay the same. GPS systems would not be    pole  shifts  and  huge  earthquakes,  this  time  deposited a few coins in the box before they sat     affected. The  Sun would still rise in the same  predicted for September 26. In addition, it was  down.     place in the East.                               claimed on many Internet sites that the comet   AN APPLE FOR THE TEACHER:            The other stories deal with the rotation  was so large that it would block out the Sun for        Now an outmoded custom, it stems from     axis, which is very stable. The supposed early   the  three  days  of  September  26,  27,  and  28,  the days when public school teachers were paid     sunrise in Greenland and many other claims that  2011.  They  also  said  that  the  U.S.  Military  with whatever the community they served could     the Sun is rising or setting in different locations  would  be  on  full  alert  and  that  all  the  U.S.  addord. Often they were given food or goods in     are rampant on the Internet. Think about it. If  government leaders would be taking shelter in   lieu of cash.     there  were  any  shift  in  the  Earth’s  rotational  the (fictional) bunkers under the Denver airport.     axis,  it  would  be  instantly  detected.  All  the  In fact, Elenin was so small that it had begun to  ADVICE TO SINGLES:     computer  drives  on  telescopes  around  the    break apart by mid-September, as it neared the           ;97  =30      < DG 1  B9>  @,8=  =9  20=     world, and all of our GPS systems, depend on a   Sun,  and  of  course  nothing  happened  on    married, stand on your head and chew a pieve of     stable rotation of the Earth. If it slipped even a  September  26-27-28.  Some  conspiracy  sites  gristle our of a beef neck and swallow it and you     tiny  amount,  telescopes  wouldn’t  be  able  to  continued  to  claim  that  the  comet  was   will get anyone you want.”
       
       
     
