why the world didn't end yesterday
presented by science at NASA December
22nd 2012 if you're watching this video
it means one thing the world didn't end
yesterday according to media reports of
an ancient maya prophecy the world was
supposed to be destroyed in December
21st 2012 but look around you the whole
thing was a misconception from the very
beginning says dr. john carlson director
of the Center for archeoastronomy
the Maya calendar did not end on
December 21st 2012 and there were no
Maya prophecies for telling the end of
the world on that date the truth he says
is more interesting than fiction
Carlson is a hard-nosed scientists a
radio astronomer who earned his degree
studying distant galaxies he became
interested in the 2012 phenomenon 35
years ago when he attended a meeting of
the american association for the
advancement of science and learned about
the Maya
where the rainforests of Mesoamerica now
stand a great civilization once
flourished the people of Maya society
built vast cities with a population
density comparable to modern los angeles
county they mastered astronomy and
developed an elaborate written language
most impressive to Carlson was their
expansive sense of time and times my is
used warped those currently used by
modern astronomers she explains
according to our science the Big Bang
occurred 13.7 billion years ago their
dates in Mayan ruins that stretch back a
billion billion times farther than that
the Maya Long Count calendar was
designed to keep track of such long
intervals it is the most complex
calendar system ever developed written
using modern typography the Long Count
calendar resembles the odometer in a car
because the digits rotate the calendar
can roll over and repeat itself this
repetition is key to the 2012 phenomenon
according to Maya theology the world was
created 5,125 years ago on a date we
would write august eleventh 3114 BC at
the time the Maya calendar looked like
this
on December 21st 2012 it is exactly the
same
in the language of my scholars 13
baktuns elapsed between the two dates
this was a significant interval in my
own theology but stresses Carlson not a
destructive one none of the thousands of
ruins tablets and standing stones that
archaeologists have examined for tellin
end-of-the-world modern science degrees
NASA experts recently gathered in a
google hangout to share their findings
don yeomans head of NASA's near-earth
object program stated that no known
asteroids or comets were on a collision
course with earth neither is a rogue
planet coming to destroy us if there
were anything out there like a planet
headed for Earth said NASA
astrobiologist David Morrison it would
already be one of the brightest objects
in the sky
everybody on earth could see it you
don't need to ask the government just go
out and look it's not there
Lika guhathakurta head of NASA's living
with a star program said the Sun is not
a threat either the Sun has been flaring
for billions of years long before the
Maya even existed and it has never once
destroyed the world right now the Sun is
approaching the maximum of its 11-year
activity cycle she added but this is the
wimpiest solar cycle of the past 50
years reports to the contrary are
exaggerated to Carlson December 21st
2012 is not a day of dread
on the contrary he says I've been
waiting to experience this day for more
than 30 years for him experiencing
December 21st 2012 means visiting the my
homeland in the Yucatan and thinking
back to the height of maya civilization
and ancient humans contemplated expenses
of time orders of magnitude beyond
modern horizons and of course
appreciating the fact that the world
didn't end yesterday got more questions
about December 21st 2012 check
www.nasa.gov / 2012 for answers and for
breaking science news stay tuned to
science.nasa.gov
history but the only person around it
doesn't have TV coverage of the food and
a man they got the black up now you're
gonna be the start of the TV picture is
still yes we are getting a TV picture
children now d-1 all