the original legend, the planet comes back every 3700 years ?

Nibiru was invented by a translator with a vivid imagination a few decades ago. Twisting the meaning of old Sumerian texts and certain biblical passages, he created a legend where the inhabitants of Nibiru created us a long time ago to be their slaves and mine gold for them. Every time their planet comes in our area, they would come and collect their gold. In the original legend, the planet comes back every 3700 years (or so) and the next pass was forecast for 2085 or after (not before).

In the 1990s, some hoaxers began to associate Nibiru (already known by us to be fictitious) to a brown dwarf called Nemesis that was thought to be in orbit around the Sun (except the Nemesis theory called for a 26 million year orbit).

The Nemesis theory was set up in 1984 to explain apparent cycles of mass destruction on Earth. Since then, better research has showed us that the cycles were not precise enough to explain any binary companion for our Sun AND infrared telescopes (best to look for brown dwarfs) never found any trace of Nemesis. According to the theory, Nemesis was still on its way out to aphelion and would not return to perihelion for about 15 million years.

The Nemesis theory was thrown in the garbage before the end of the 20th century... where some charlatans picked it up.

In 2003, the charlatans predicted the end-of-the-world. They were selling a book on how to survive the end-of-the-world. Their story is that a planet (called Planet X) was coming around and would be causing storms, earthquakes and pole reversals... sounds familiar?

Shortly after that, astrologists and other "New Wave" types found a link between an old Mayan calendar (a day-count calendar used by ancient astronomers) and the passage of the Winter Solstice position through the thickest part of the Milky Way. So they announced a New Age, where all our problems would be solved and we would live in peace and harmony (the usual astrology stuff).

Lots of people started to make predictions about that date. The charlatans saw an opportunity. They had their book revised, they added all the other junk and loaded up YouTube with videos, pretending that NASA was aware of this.

So now, according to the charlatans, Nibiru and/or Planet X and/or Nemesis will come close to Earth, cause storms, earthquakes and/or pole reversals, and/or hide the Sun, and/or hit us, and/or the inhabitants will take over the world, and/or... and it goes on forever.

Everyone is getting into the act. There are even people who will rent you special bunkers so that you can hide from the Mayan gods, and/or the inhabitants of Nibiru, and/or the asteroids whose orbits will be disrupted by Nemesis (they don't care what your reason is as long as you give them your money).

Worst is that we believe that some of these charlatans are posing as innocent persons, asking questions on Yahoo-answers just to keep the topic alive (they usually include links to their YouTube videos).

So there you have it. The Big 2012 Hoax Off is far from over. It's like a contest to see who will come up with the most outrageous lie about the end-or-the-world.

It would be fun if it were not for the fact that some people actually believe it and get scared.

?? Planet X and Nibiru ??

Planet X and Nibiru, which are separate frauds, do not exist. X was supposed to be here in 2003. It's a bit late. Any other planet like Nibiru that was supposed to be here in 2012 would be visible with binoculars by now. Don't believe cr@p about it only being visible from the southern hemisphere, some of the biggest telescopes in the world are in South Africa, Australia and Chile.

Nibiru was invented by a fraud called Zecharia Sitchin 20 - 30 years ago. He lied about being able to translate Babylonian writing, he lied about some planet with a 3600 year orbit being inhabited by aliens who bred humans from themselves and apes and made them mine gold. The Babylonian "Nibiru" was the planet we now call Jupiter.

The Mayan calendar does not end. They had two calendars and a count of days from a date in their mythical past, about 3114BC. One calendar of 260 days for religious purposes, a second of 365 days for practical purposes and the count of days. Their complex system of counting cannot handle large numbers easily so when the numbers got much above around 1.8 million (by our system) they found it more convenient to start again. Some inscriptions mention later dates, so it looks as if they expected nothing much to happen.

In any case prediction based on this by Mayans or anyone else are superstition. The prediction was invented by typical woo-woos just a few years ago.

Every shred of "evidence" brought forward to support disaster or some significant change in late December 2012 is fraud. There will be no planetary alignments, the Sun, Earth and galactic centre will not align (even if these alignments happened there would be no effect).

Prophecies based on Nostradamus or Revelation have never been fulfilled in the past,. no matter what the lunatic fringe Christians say. The "Bible Codes" predicted nuclear war for 1997 but were shown to be fraud a dozen years ago.

Everything about this is lies, superstition, delusion and practical jokes, mostly for the purpose of selling faked up books, videos and cheap documentaries to the Fox network who will transmit anything so long as it is focus and does not defame anyone who is likely to sue.

Irresponsible money grubbing creeps in suits.

NASA- end of the world in 2012?

Do you really believe that a planet called nibiru is going to hit earth in 2012?

In fact, David Morrison, a senior scientist at NASA, has gone out of his way to deny the existence of Nibiru/Planet X:

http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astr…

Scientists don't expect anything out of the ordinary to happen in the year 2012, or specifically on the date December 21, other than the solstice, which happens every year.

None of the "predicted" happenings for 2012 hold up under close scrutiny. "Planet X" and "Nibiru" simply don't exist. The Mayan calendar ends a cycle, but there were no predictions of the end of the world. The Sun doesn't line up with the galactic centre; it's 6 degrees off. No asteroids or comets are actually predicted to hit Earth.

All of this stuff was put together by crackpots in order to promote their books and TV shows, and shamelessly promoted by the History Channel. Don't take any of it seriously!

What you need to know (NASA comments in quotes) Why 2012?

"The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012."

Should we be worried about mysterious planets going rogue?

 

"If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye."

Is what Woody Harrelson (appropriately cast as an apocalypse-predicting radio DJ) says about planetary alignments science or gibberish?

 

"There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible."

About this doomsday calendar business ...

"The Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar."

 

What about meteors and asteroids?

"... Nothing is predicted to hit in 2012."

The earth's crust won't do a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?

"A bait-and-shift to fool people."

So what you're saying is ...

"Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012 ... scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012."

Discovery's External Fuel Tank Repair Progress

Technicians at NASA Kennedy Space Center's Launch Pad 39A in Florida plan to install new quick disconnect hardware Tuesday morning in the recently-installed ground umbilical carrier plate (GUCP) to fix a hydrogen gas leak that scrubbed space shuttle Discovery’s launch Nov. 5. Technicians installed a new flight seal in the GUCP attached to Discovery’s external fuel tank last Friday night and spent the weekend taking precise measurements of the hardware to ensure all components are properly aligned and prevent another hydrogen leak.

Another team of technicians is working on repairing cracks on the tops of two, 21-foot-long support beams, called stringers, on the exterior of the external tank in an area known as the intertank. The team includes personnel from the external tank manufacturing plant in Louisiana, the Michoud Assembly Facility.

Over the weekend, technicians removed a section of one of the stringers that had two, 9-inch cracks in it. Last Friday, during foam removal and inspection of adjacent stringers to the one with the 9-inch cracks, technicians identified a crack about 3-inches long on the left-hand adjacent stringer. Further foam removal revealed one additional corresponding crack on the same left-hand adjacent stringer. Technicians plan to remove that section of the stringer Monday night. They’ll also install a new section of metal, called a doubler because it’s twice as thick as the original stringer metal, on the stringer that had the 9-inch cracks.

Engineers continue evaluating the intertank for any potential issues, but so far no other cracks have been found beyond the ones on the two previously identified stringers. There are a total of 108 stringers on the intertank.

Senior managers plan to meet on Nov. 22 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center and via video conference for a launch status briefing to assess and review the repair work and launch preparations. Although managers have not set a new target launch date for Discovery’s STS-133 mission to the International Space Station, the repair work and planning still are aimed at supporting an attempt in the upcoming launch window that opens Nov. 30.

OBAMA SIGNS NASA AUTHORIZATION BILL

On Monday signed into law the 2010 NASA Authorization Act, which adds a space shuttle mission and advances development of a heavy-lift rocket and multipurpose crew exploration vehicle.

Congress also extended space station operations by four years to 2020, which made another shuttle flight crucial to transporting key lab elements to the station.

The additional shuttle flight is scheduled for June to deliver and remove equipment at the International Space Station.

Some supplies and equipment won’t fit on the Russian Federal Space Agency’s Soyuz spacecraft, one of the vehicles that will ferry astronauts to the space station before a commercial vehicle is ready by 2014.

Nelson and U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, co-authored the bill, which received bipartisan support in the House and Senate.

“From a work force standpoint, the extra flight allows NASA, at several space centers, a smooth transition for shuttle workers to the next program,”

United Space Alliance, the primary space shuttle contractor, laid off 333 Houston area employees Oct. 1, two days after Congress approved the NASA authorization bill. Company officials announced the layoffs in July.

The other remaining shuttle flights are scheduled for Nov. 1 and Feb. 27.

Congress will conduct an appropriations review when a lame duck session resumes in November.

Under this bill, the development of a new heavy-lift rocket would start as early as next year. This is a far cry from the 2015 review date for heavy-lifts that Obama had called for.

This means that the space flight gap that NASA is facing potentially stands to be far less expansive than under the president’s original plans. Nelson stated that he views this and other elements of the bill as ensuring that NASA will have a very bright future.