*This post re-published & paraphrased from cache – August 29th 2009*
I understand that there’s a lot of concern over the 2012 year and the so-called Planet X (Nibiru). So much that I could calculate a significant statistical average of questions coming across Q&A sites such as Yahoo Answers. Just to guess, I’d say 1 in 10 questions have something to do with this topic.
While it should be stated that there are very few things that can be stated with complete certainty. These claims do not have substantiated data to back them up and the greater scientific community denounces it as a hoax. While this has wrongly happened in the past (just think back to when the Earth was the center of the universe and the world was flat), I hope that we’ve moved past short-sighted, systematic denials and instead, evaluating a claim or situation as bogus because evidence or even Occam’s razor points to the rational that it isn’t true.
Given this, the Nibiru portion of the 2012 scares is a hoax. The suggestion that the year 2012 as the end of time came about because of the Mayan calendar which ends in 2012; specifically December 21st 2012. Aside from that, there are no grounds for this case. Nibiru comes from an ancient Sumerian fable and no evidence of its existence has ever been found and beyond the fable, nothing suggests it existed or exists today.
To everyone who wants more information about this rather lengthy topic NASA has set up a site that gives more specific details about these claims: Nibiru and Doomsday 2012
Now, there is one thing that should be added to this which is substantial and does have science to back it up. That is, that the year 2012 will bring about the next peak in the Sun’s solar cycle. At this time the Sun’s magnetic field will be so twisted up that it will actually snap out of it and as a result reverse its poles. This time also means elevated activity in the way of sun spots and solar flares. We know this because it has happened time and time again over the years. The Sun cycles on an ~10.66 year cycle (new data on this, down from the 11 years that was previously used) and reverses polarity at each change of cycle. Because of the increased solar activity during peak times we are at risk of such problems as electrical interruptions (Look up information on 1859 solar event, 1998 and 2003 incidents), satellite and communications related disruptions for anything that is unprotected. This type of situation is a real threat based on what we’ve seen in the past and is something to be aware of.
