Welcome to the end of the world

Solar flares, a phenomenon that some believe apocalyptic devastate life on Earth.

With just a few days for the "fateful" December 21, the world continues to show signs that it is about to end. The magnetic field is stable, there are no foreign objects or threatening in heaven, seismic activity is normal and the Sun behaves normally. However, the doomsayers insist. And 'threats' listed so far are added others, such as the arrival of several days of "darkness" just before the inevitable end, or the emergence of new viruses so lethal that would end all human beings within weeks. ..

NASA, and the very government of the United States, have been forced to issue statements, create sites and publish videos on the internet to appease a segment of the population, as the date draws near, is increasingly more nervous and worried. Emails received on the subject by the space agency in the thousands. Many ask directions, want to know what to do and how to behave when disaster arrives. Other, more troubling, they even express suicidal intentions. And all, without exception, expressed a degree of concern that often borders with absolute despair. Spain is not far behind in this aspect. And there are even those who have done business in our country selling nuclear bunkers to protect what may come.

However, not to worry, as all part of the misinterpretation of a number of ancient inscriptions in the Mayan calendar. This ancient people measured time in cycles, including "baktum", which lasts for about 400 years. The Mayan calendar has thirteen baktums (5200 years) and once you get to the last, the count starts again from scratch. And that is exactly what will happen on December 21. Which, of course, does not imply any catastrophic end to mankind. It's like, NASA insists, to what happens when the car's odometer reaches 99999. The account begins again and the next number that appears is the 00000.

Throughout history, there have already been at least 160 prophecies with specific date for the end of the world. Despite them, we are still here. As we continue from December 21.

Not 'Planet X' or asteroid

One of the most common fears is the collision with a large spatial body to pieces Earth. A world not yet observed in the solar system, even larger than Jupiter and known as "Planet X" or Nibiru, named after an ancient Babylonian legend. That would always mysterious planet across the Sun, which is why our telescopes can not see it, but its orbit will come close to Earth every 3,600 years.

Science simply denies the existence of such a planet. And while it is true that in the outer regions of the solar system can be hidden yet unobserved planetary bodies, none of them represent any danger to us. If Nibiru really existed, would have been observed already by NASA or any other space agency. Or, even without him, they have measured the effects of its gravity on other planets known. Not to say that if you really missing a few days to a collision with a body like that, this world would be so close to us that would occupy most of the sky over our heads and everyone, without exception, could see him looking up only .

Nor were detected threatening asteroids or comets on a collision course with our planet. It is true that in the past several km space rocks. caused major disasters, such as the extinction of the dinosaurs 56 million years ago. And it is also true that something like this could happen again. But nothing indicates that some of these rocks is at least a week of hitting the Earth.

And for those who believe that NASA and the governments are hiding this information, the fact is that it would be impossible to hide something, because in the world there are literally tens of thousands of amateur astronomers to "comb" the sky continuously with telescopes. Astronomers do not depend on any state agency and that, apart from the space agencies, conducted on their own numerous discoveries that increase our understanding of the space around us.

The Sun will not kill us (for now)

The second "big argument" of those who think that the apocalypse is imminent is a sudden and brutal solar flare on Friday devastate our planet. To this end, based on the coincidence of the date indicated by the Mayans with the period of maximum solar activity in the current cycle. However, this idea has no scientific basis.

For starters, the next solar maximum is expected for late 2013 and not for this December 21. And this cycle (which is 24), is not exactly one of the busiest on record. It is true that a solar flare strong enough can damage our power and communications systems. But even in that case, would not destroy the Earth. Nor would kill its inhabitants. The Sun has been broadcasting flare and CME (coronal mass ejections) for thousands of millions of years, and none of them has destroyed the Earth. Why would I precisely on December 21 without warning?

That said, no doubt, in time, will be just the Sun who end up destroying our planet. But that will be in about 5,000 million years ago, when our star runs out of hydrogen fueling its nuclear furnace and start burning helium. Then it becomes a red giant, a star much larger than at present, and its perimeter will reach Venus. In that time, but not before, our planet, if it still exists, will have become uninhabitable hell.

Galactic Alignment mortal

On 21 December, the Winter Solstice, the Sun and the Earth will align with the center of our galaxy. An alignment predicted by the Mayans and that according to the doomsayers, trigger unknown dark forces capable of destroying our world forever. But the truth is that none of that will happen.

On the one hand, celestial alignments have no effect on any of them. They are very common and it has more to do with geometry than reality. Remember if it happened in 2001 on the subject of Elenin says, it would cause terrible disasters precisely because it "was aligned" with the Earth and the Sun ..

The galactic center also is an imaginary entity that can not be calculated accurately. The Milky Way is huge and our position within it prevents us from knowing exactly its actual size and shape.

The Maya were great astronomers, that no one disputes. And the comments made even surprised, by the lack of means with which they were conducted. Today, with all kinds of scientific instruments and observation, it is possible to much more accurately predict when and where you will find a particular celestial object at a particular time. And all these objects, from the point of view adopted, may be aligned between them, without that fact has absolutely no consequence.

Supervolcanoes murderers

74,000 years ago, the eruption of a supervolcano in Sumatra (Indonesia) almost cost them dearly in the human species. It is estimated that then were driven about 3,000 cubic kilometers of lava and the huge amount of emitted gases and dust darkened the atmosphere of the entire planet, causing a nuclear winter like effect that lasted several decades. About 60% of the Humanity of the time could not handle the new and terrible conditions and literally disappeared.

Found evidence of other large more or less catastrophic eruptions, and have located some of the "hot spots" where that would happen again. Among them the Yellowstone Caldera in the United States, a supervolcano that erupted more than two million years ago and, again, makes 640,000. But there is not the slightest indication that any one of these episodes is about to happen in the present.

The super-eruptions, although real, have occurred rarely in the history of the Earth. Some geologists put the possibility of occurrence of once every 700,000 years and try to learn from what happened in the past to identify the "symptoms" that precede and to minimize its effects.

The doomsayers, however, are convinced that, perhaps because of the galactic alignment or gravity itself Planet X (see other items) a supervolcano could "wake up" suddenly on 21 December which caused a tremendous surge of destruction. Of course, there is no proof, however small, to allow the correctness of think that prediction.

Magnetic pole reversal

It is a natural phenomenon that occurs, on average, between one and five times every million years. It consists of a shift of the Earth's magnetic field such that the positions of the north and south poles (magnetic) exchange. The last known reversal happened 780,000 years ago.

It is known that, while moving the poles, the earth's magnetic field intensity drops, which may cause an increased incidence of cosmic and solar radiation on the surface of the earth in the process. However, it has never been associated this phenomenon to biological extinction episode, so much exaggerated resulya attributing catastrophic consequences of any kind.

Currently, the North Magnetic Pole moves (from Canada to Siberia) about 30 km. per year, although nothing suggests that we are at the beginning of a reversal. The human species has not been observed directly no magnetic reversal so far, and the mechanisms that govern them are not entirely clear. However, scientists consider it absurd to think that a phenomenon that, once begun, takes to complete dozens, even hundreds of thousands of years, will occur on a given day and by surprise. Nor, of course, that's going to mean the destruction of our planet and life on it.