Science & Tech
NASA shoots down 2012 doomsday scenario

QMI AGENCY

Forget everything you've heard about the world ending on Dec, 21, 2012.

NASA is here to assure us that come Dec. 22, 2012, we will still be standing.

In a post that appears on the space agency's site, NASA dispelled several myths surrounding the doomsday date.

"Given a legitimate need to protect Earth from the most intense forms of space weather -- great bursts of electromagnetic energy and particles that can sometimes stream from the sun -- some people worry that a gigantic 'killer solar flare' could hurl enough energy to destroy Earth," the statement said.

"Citing the accurate fact that solar activity is currently ramping up in its standard 11-year cycle, there are those who believe that 2012 could be coincident with such a flare. But this same solar cycle has occurred over millennia. Anyone over the age of 11 has already livesd through such a solar maximum with no harm. In addition, the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in late 2013 or early 2014, not 2012."

NASA says there simply isn't enough energy in the sun to "send a killer fireball 93 million miles to destroy Earth."

The agency says the prediction that we'd be toast in 2012 started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth.

"This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

"Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012," NASA says. "Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."

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