You’ve heard of this because, in the last few years, a few people have realised that they can make money by telling a lot of other people scary things. The History Channel, who spread it, is one such. It’s their business to make money, not educate.
First, the people who peddle this rubbish found the ancient Mayan calendar. PART of that complex calendar ends in the year we know as 2012. The bastards who scare children combined this with:
1. a non-sensical statement that the "planets will align" in 2012 (which, apart from being unlikely in the whole age of the universe, would have no effect on anything)
and/or
2. the Earth, sun and centre of galaxy will align in 2012 (which doesn’t even make sense)
and/or
3. a myth that the mysterious planet or star Nibiru is to make a close pass of Earth in 2012, which, they say, is why the Mayan calendar ends then.
Nibiru, by the way, is simply the word used by the ancient Sumerians for the planet Jupiter. It has been re-interpreted by the money makers/nightmare merchants as a star that swings close every few thousand years bringing chaos/natural disasters/magnetic pole shifts/spiritual awakening/mixed dog and cat marriages . . .
Get the picture?
Anything you hear about the year 2012 is crap. The people who do this to people like you are evil.
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You might even discover that you can live nicely without these irritations in your life, and will have time to pick up some more sulubrious pastimes.
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No real scientist is saying that the Earth lines up with a black hole (simply, because it is not true). The Mayans also did NOT say that.
There is a black hole at the centre of the Galaxy. The Mayans did not know that and they did not even know about galactic structure.
However, they did know about the Milky Way and about precession. They divided their calendar in five "ages" that are sometimes called "Long Counts", with five of them adding up to what they thought was the duration of the cycle of precession (they missed by a few years).
On Dec. 21, 2012, One Long Count will come to an end and a new one begins the next day. A bit like when we have a century that ends and a new one begins in our calendar.
Mayan astronomers from centuries ago have left predictions of astronomical events (like transits of Venus, for example) that are for years well after 2012, and they are dated using their calendar. Clearly, they did not think the world would end in 2012.
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Every year, the Sun reaches the most southerly position of its apparent path in the sky on (or very close to) Dec. 21. The moment (and the position on the celestial sphere) is called the solstice. In the north, we call it the winter solstice.
Because of precession, this point moves a tiny bit along the Sun’s path (called the ecliptic) so that it goes all the way around in 25,800 years.
So, every 25,800 years, there comes a time when the position os the solstice is closer to the direction of the centre of the galaxy (where the black hole is located).
However, this will not be in 2012 (the Mayans made a small error in calculating the precession period) and the "alignment" is not perfect: it still misses by over 5 degrees (more than 11 times the apparent diameter of the sun’s disc).
So, the Sun never really gets in line with the black hole.
Even if it did, at our distance from the Galactic centre (25,000 light-years), the "alignment" would have no effect on the black hole (and the black hole, no effect on the solar system).
We’re OK for another 25,800 years, I guess.
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earth is always lined up with the black hole. any 2 points make a line. the theory says that since the black hole is spinning its gravity is concentrated into a disk and were going to pass through that disk. that is also not true. gravity cannot concentrate itself, it defys pretty much all gravitational laws/theories.
the mayans did not, i repeat, DID NOT, say that 2012 is the end of the world. their calendar starts a new count. counts are their way of organizing their calendar. its the equivalent of going from 2007 to 2008. did the world end? i think not
nothing is going to happen in 2012, im so sick of this bs
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no, i don’t think we are all gonna die because of a Mayan calendar.
do the math… the Earth is safe from the effects of the galactic core.
oatmeal should be eaten, not stuffed into your head as an intelligence substitute.
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