FollowUp 2: Not Doomsday

I continue to stand by my prediction that doomsday is not in 2012 (no matter who is elected in November).  Don Yeomans is a Senior Research Scientist at NASA who has put together a short video that offers pretty good evidence that most of the popular doomsday scenarios for this year are wrong.



21 December 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

2 January 2012, FollowUp 1.

Praise: Neil deGrasse Tyson, advocate for education and NASA

Astronomer and author Neil deGrasse Tyson's testimony on Wednesday before the United States Senate ran about twenty-five minutes including the Q & A.  In the testimony, Dr. Tyson calls for doubling the budget of NASA.  His passion for space exploration is based on science and on capitalism.  He really is brilliant as both a scientist and a populist.  If you can possible afford the time, please listen.

FollowUp 1: Not Doomsday

I continue to stand by my prediction that doomsday is not in 2012 (no matter who is elected in November).  Space.com has an excellent debunking of a lot of silly doomsday scenarios.  Based on data from NASA and interviews with NASA scientists, they disprove

• the end of the Mayan long calendar, which will begin its thirteenth cycle on 22 December 2012.
• Nibiru or Planet X, which is not headed to impact with Earth on 21 December 2012.
• gravity destroying Earth due to the Sun crossing the plane of the Milky Way.
• gravity destroying Earth due to an alignment of other planets.
• solar storms destroying the Earth.
• destruction of the Earth by the flipping of the magnetic poles.
• impact by a significant asteroid.

Who knew that there were so many ways for our planet to end? While it is technically feasible to destroy the Earth, this is far from likely.  Far more likely is that our overpopulation stresses the ecosystem to the point where we endanger our own survival, but not that of our planet.

21 December 2011, Original Pedantic Political Ponderings post.

13 March 2012, FollowUp 2.

Praise: NASA opens 2012 with holy GRAIL

Okay, so holy may not be quite so accurate.

Artist's concept of the GRAIL mission. Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech

The NASA GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) mission is two satellites that are almost in place to explore the interior of the Moon.

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA's Gravity Recovery And Interior Laboratory (GRAIL)-A spacecraft is within 24 hours of its insertion burn that will place it into lunar orbit. At the time the spacecraft crossed the milestone at 1:21 p.m. PST today (4:21 p.m. EST), the spacecraft was 30,758 miles (49,500 kilometers) from the moon.

Launched aboard the same rocket on Sept. 10, 2011, GRAIL-A's mirror twin, GRAIL-B, is also closing the gap between itself and the moon. GRAIL-B is scheduled to perform its lunar orbit insertion burn on New Year's Day (Jan. 1) at 2:05 p.m. PST (5:05 p.m. EST).

Science is a wonderful way to welcome a new year.  Stars and Stripes has more about the launch and what the scientists at NASA hope to learn.

Wishing everyone a year of enjoyable learning, with movement toward health and equality.

Happy 2012