So there's science, and then there's science fiction,
and then there's just outright hoaxes.
And with December 21, 2012, coming up, it seems like
we're just going to have to tell you outright, right now
what is not going to happen!
[INTRO]
December 21, 2012, as you may have heard,
from some people's perspective, is pretty much D-day for Earth.
You're probably familiar with the Mayan apocalypse scenario,
which I covered in a different episode of this show.
You can go watch it right now.
It's quite interesting.
Which basically is saying: the world is going to end because
the Mayan long calendar is reaching this somewhat roundish number.
That's basically all that's happening.
It happens every 400 years or so.
And every time it's happened before, nothing impressive has happened.
That was your end-of- the-world hoax primer.
Now we can truly let the debunking begin.
Myth: Nibiru, the rogue planet that was discovered by the Sumerians
let's not get into how they discovered it while we can't see it.
It's nearing the end of its 3,600-year orbit and it's going to
come around and smash into the Earth.
When?!
Oh, December 2012, of course.
Of course NASA knows about this, but they're covering it up.
Of course everyone with a telescope of any size
can see this planet by now, but they're covering it up.
It's a massive planet and it's coming to get us in a year's time,
but you know, you might as well keep it to yourself,
there's no reason to induce mass hysteria.
We're all just going to die anyway.
Fact: Sumerians... great at a lot of things,
like creating agriculture, civilization as we know it,
writing down things, that was super awesome,
not particularly great at astronomy.
For example they were not aware
of the concept of planets orbiting stars.
Right, and also there is no planet Nibiru.
If you go to any of the websites that are advocating
this disaster scenario, they all look like they were designed in 1996.
The date of Nibiru's arrival keeps changing.
It was supposed to get here early in 2003,
just not very good at math.
Myth: We're just going to combine two here.
One: The earth is headed for the equator of the galaxy,
and also the sun is going to be pointing directly at the center
of the galaxy and this is going to create a gravitational vortex
and everything will wobble out of sync and flip over
and shoot off to the side and drop down and the whole...
pancake the earth.
We'll all be dead.
Fact: I don't know where to begin with this one!
So the galactic equator, I think what they probably mean
is the "galactic plane," which is like, midway through
the thickness of the galaxy.
now that doesn't have any special significance except that
it's kind of a cool idea for it to have.
Also, we're like dozens of light years away from being aligned
with the galactic plane, and we're currently hurtling away from it,
as part of our 64 million-year cycle of wobbling around
within the galactic plane.
As far as the sun lining up with center of the galaxy,
I mean, that's sort of a cool idea to think,
"Ah the sun is lining up with the center of the galaxy!"
It doesn't mean anything.
This episode is giving me David Tennant hair.
Final myth: On december 21, 2012 the earth's magnetic sphere
is going to turn inside out, and it's going to tear our planet
apart or possibly we'll just be killed by lethal doses of radiation.
Fact: Actually, this happens sometimes.
So, you're allowed to freak out a little bit.
It's really interesting actually that the Earth's magnetic sphere
occasionally turns inside out.
And that doesn't mean that south becomes north
and north becomes south.
Actually, let's put a graphic of that up.
It's weird.
It goes from being a normal looking magnetic sphere to being like,
"What the frick is that!?"
The last of these reversals was about 780,000 years ago.
though the time between the reversals varies wildly.
And it's estimated to take between 1,000 and 10,000 years
for the reversal to actually take place.
But yeah, this happens and if it had happened
during the age of exploration,
people's compass needles started pointing the wrong way
that would have been really weird, but it didn't.
If it does start to happen though, if our magnetic field
starts to weaken and flip, that could have
some potential consequences for our lifestyles,
we'd probably have to use more sunscreen, but there's nothing
in the fossil record that indicates that these hundreds of flips
that our magnetic field has gone through
over the course of history has resulted in anything like the kinds
of mass extinctions that we see for like, the dinosaurs for example.
I'm getting my blood pressure all worked up over this.
But let's just give a shout out to David Morrison, who has
the thankless job of responding to these weirdos at NASA.
He's just such an earnest and patient guy,
and he's constantly responding to the questions
of freaked out teenagers and adults alike.
And I'm just going to give him the final word for this video.
DAVID: There is no threat to Earth in 2012.
There is no danger.
All of the talk about a doomsday is a big hoax
perpetuated on the internet and with people trying to make money.
So please, don't worry about it.
HANK: I hope you're less freaked out now.
In the comments please go ahead and respond to the crazy people
who are telling me why I'm stupid.
I really appreciate your help in dealing with those people
because I can't respond to them all, but you can respond to us
on Facebook and Twitter, give us suggestions for what we should
talk about in the future and ask any questions that you have
and we'll do our best to answer.
Thank you for watching SciShow.