13th Moon of 2012

The 'Moon illusion' as the full moon sets over the VLT telescopes in Chile. Image: G. Gillet / ESO

Before the modern calendar we use today, ancient people keep track of days by observing the phases of the moon. From New Moon to Full Moon, one cycle equals to one Month hence the origin of the word. By logic if there is one moon cycle for each month, and there are 12 months in one year, then why do we now have this 13th moon for 2012?

Answer:  The moon cycle is approx 28 days not 30 days, so there will be times of the year where we will see two full moons in one month. Read more from a previous entry about Blue Moon.

The Brief History of 2012 Notpocalypse

I originally wanted to shrug off and avoid writing an entry about this December 21 or 23 end-of-the-world thing, but due to boredom, and the lack of a better topic, I decided to ride along with the mainstream, social media to write my thoughts about this (social) phenomenon.

Is this idea end-of-the-world new social phenomenon?

Nope, since the ancient times, crackpots and nimrods have been crying doomsday.

I remember one when I was about 10 years old. The Pastor of our local Baptist Church posted a slogan on one side of his truck saying the words – “Korean liars”. I knew he was referring an end of the world prediction made by a Korean Christian sect. 

In fact according to Wikipedia, there are 164 recorded doomsday dates that never happened. This year (2012) alone there are five.

In case you missed the other end of the world predictions for 2012 here are some.

2012 May 27 - Ronald Weinland - Author of “The Prophesied End-Time” & “2008 - God’s Final Witness” claimed Jesus Christ would return and the world would end on this day. 

2012 Jun 30 - José Luis de Jesús, founder and leader of Creciendo en Gracia sect, predicted that the world's governments and economies would fail on this day, and that he and his followers would undergo a transformation that would allow them to fly and walk through walls. 

2012 Dec 21 -The so-called Mayan apocalypse. The Earth would be destroyed by an asteroid, Nibiru, or some other interplanetary object; an alien invasion; or a supernova. 

2012 Dec 23 - Warren Jeffs- The president of the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints predicted from his prison cell that the world would end by December 23. 

2012 Dec 31 - When the end failed to occur as he had predicted on December 23, Warren Jeffs blamed it on his followers "lack of faith", and moved the prediction to December 31.      

What do I think of it?

It is interesting from a social science standpoint how phenomenon like doomsday predictions spread from person to person, blog to blog, via the Internet and survive until it gets to the mainstream media. It is like asking - How did Gangnam Style song got so famous?  I really don’t get it. Perhaps I’m getting a little old to appreciate mainstream stuffs like I use to.

Despite the epic fail of the others in the past, 2012 doomsday still on the main menu, thanks to the TV, social media, and Hollywood promotions.

But what make this new “notpocalypse” different and from others in the menu of doomsday of the past is, it has least four major tasty ingredients.  

1. The end of Mayan Calendar
2. The return of Planet X / Nibiru
3. Huge Solar Flares
4. Sun and Black hole galactic alignment

But from an empirical science standpoint, 2012 doomsday, like other similar predictions before it, is absolute NONSENSE.  

Let’s try to briefly discuss one by one.

Mayan Calendar. Ancient Mayans predicted the end of the world on Dec. 21, 2012 because that’s the date their calendar ends.  False. Just like our calendar, theirs was based on cycles. At the end on a cycle, it resets to a new start. It’s like when we have New Year’s Eve December 31 and then start again to January 1 after that.

Planet X. This is a repeat ingredient from the doomsday of May 15 2003, when there was supposed to be giant planet named Nibiru that orbits the Sun every 3600 years and would sweep past the Earth and cause all sorts of disasters.  False. As mentioned from my previous entry [read here], Nibiru or Planet X and its expected orbit near Earth was a derivative from some bad data and interpretations from the past.

Solar Flares. Every 11 years, the Sun’s magnetic field goes crazy and will pop stored energy though solar flares which would bring catastrophes to Earth. True and false. True the Sun was expected to be more active with solar flare discharge, and years ago it would look like that this month is that time, 11 years just a guestimate, and now it is apparent this expected peak is talking longer than expected. So scientists say expect a delay until 2014

Galactic alignment. The Sun for the first time in human history will align to the Black Hole in the center of the Milkyway. This alignment will bring disasters to our tiny planet. False. I will admit that given the bad reputation of Blackholes (not to mention this a giant Blackhole), and the idea that our Sun will align with such a thing really sounds a scary thing to happen but the thing is harmless. It’s like an eclipse bodies will align but nothing will happen. And one more thing the real date for this galactic alignment is December 19^th not 21^st or 23^rd.

Do I believe in any doomsday predictions?

Apart from those events I mentioned from a previous post [read here] and if we are lucky enough miss or survive all earth threats in the near future then the nearest real Earth apocalypse suggested by science is near year 500 million AD,  when scientist predicts the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere will drop, making Earth uninhabitable. And if we are advance enough to find a new place in the solar system by then, then the next is after year 4 Billion when the Sun will begin to swell and die out. After that is the Big Rip in 22 billion a time when entire universe will eventually be torn apart by its continual expansion.  Or year  10¹⁰⁰  the suggested ultimate fate of the universe, in which the universe has diminished to a state of no thermodynamic free energy and therefore can no longer sustain life.

From Blue to Black Marble

Blue Earth

Prior to NASA space flights we can only imagine what the whole planet would look like in a single picture. So in 1972, a crew of Apollo 17 took a photograph from inside the spacecraft on its way to the moon. Today, that picture is probably the most famous and most distributed picture the Earth – It is called the Blue Marble.

Black Marble

With the boom of the technology in the last decades, we have gone a good distance in space and space photography. And while most can only take photos of outer space from Earth, there are some, like the guy of Apollo 17, who does the other way around – Take pictures of Earth from outer space. Not everybody can do this but thanks to Google it did all that for us. Today, we have detailed photos of the every corner our planet available to everyone. But Google was not contended with just that, so just lately, after a collaboration with NASA, and NOAA, it released the most detailed possible image of Earth at night – Black Marble.

Check the page here.

At first look, I found a few interesting things.

1.    If more lights would mean more progressive areas, than this is also like an economic map. Try to compare North and South Korea.

2.       What are those captured huge collection lights from places that are supposed to be open sea?

AstroSpies - PBS Nova documentary

I just want to share this for today.