Well, folks, it’s the moment we’ve all been waiting for, but if you’ve run up those credit cards in anticipation of the big end-of-the-world party sponsored by our favorite ancient culture of the moment, the Mayans, NASA is here to throw some cold water on the festivities with their post-dated press release of December 22 entitled “Why the World Didn’t End Yesterday.”
Sure, they seem to be taking an unnecessary precautions, which will undoubtedly cause plenty of conspiracy theorists to continue their guessing game, but they do outline five ways the world will not end in a couple of days.
Prediction 1: The sun will kill us all
…Predictions of a Dec. 21 solar storm that will devastate the planet are not based in reality, according to NASA scientists. This particular solar maximum is one of the "wimpiest" in recent history, according to NASA heliophysicist Lika Guhathakurta, who spoke during an online panel on the Mayan apocalypse on Nov. 28. In other words, scientists have no reason to expect solar storms capable of disrupting our society.
Prediction 2: The Earth's magnetic poles will flip-flop
What is it with the Mayan apocalypse and electromagnetism? This rumor holds that the North and South Poles will suddenly and catastrophically change places on Dec. 21.
The idea isn't as totally leftfield as it sounds: The Earth's magnetic field does actually flip-flop occasionally, though not in the course of a day. The pole swaps happen over the course of hundreds of thousands of years, according to NASA. The switching of magnetic poles could lead to a slight increase in cosmic radiation, but previous flip-flops have not disrupted the life seen in the fossil record…
Full story at LiveScience.
From the minds at NASA.
Photo credit: Fotolia
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