To be completed by other "serious" sources ...
No troll please!
Should we expect the end of the world in 2012?
Is the end of the world for 2012? A shiver crosses the room - packed - of the Royal Society of London, when the astrophysicist Jocelyn Bell Burnell throws the question in pasture.
The scientist, famous for having first detected the signal of a pulsar in 1967, tackled the subject because at the end of each of her lectures, someone said: "This is all fine, but do you think of the end of the world in 2012? "
The disaster scenario has its origins in the Mayan calendar. The Mayans, who believed that the gods regularly made and undone the world, believed they were living in a "long count" that began on August 11, 3114 BC, and was due to end on December 21, 2012.
Where they probably thought that a new "long count" would follow, many false prophets used the date to predict the end of the world, under the effect of various causes: fall of a meteorite, alignment of planets, effect of the solar magnetic field ...
All theories that bite all the more on opinion that they are constructed from pseudo scientific elements, notes Ms. Burnell. The question asked on Google reveals some 56 million references, and some even believe that the end of the world is for 11:11 precisely.
What about it? The winter solstice intervenes well at 11:12 a.m. on December 21, but without causing a major disaster to date.
Some suggest a reversal of the solar magnetic field. This phenomenon does exist, it even takes place every 11 years or so, with a variable peak of activity and more or less significant solar storms. But the current cycle is marked by weak activity, and "the sun has become rather calm", observes the scientist.
And the Earth? Some predict that it will also change its magnetic field and ... spin the other way. In fact, a change in the Earth's magnetic field has occurred twice since the presence of Man on Earth, the last time 750.000 years ago. But the Earth always turns in the same direction, "and we are still there", launches the scientist.
The alignment of the planets could shake the Earth to the point of causing the end of the world, some argue. Except that the next alignment does not take place until 2040, and that the planets enter only a negligible part in the terrestrial attraction. The last alignment (Jupiter, Venus, Moon, Earth) in 2008 went unnoticed.
There are still meteorites, which can cause serious damage. The impact of a 10 km diameter meteorite 65 million years ago in Mexico (Chixculub) would be responsible for the disappearance of the dinosaurs.
But giant telescopes are now able to detect large meteorites and calculate the risk of collision, says the astrophysicist. Technologies to divert them from their trajectory also exist, such as sending a rocket to a point of impact.
Perhaps the most fanciful is the hypothesis that we fall into the black hole in the center of our galaxy. Except that the Earth is located 26.000 light years from the hole, which makes it quite impossible to be there for December 21, 2012, not to mention the gravity and Earth's orbit, which keep us at a good distance.
Ultimately, this type of prophecy has no scientific basis, and feeds only on the credulity of the public, notes the physicist.
"No doubt, you will have to buy Christmas presents for 2012," she says, hilariously.
Jocelyn Bell Burnell won one of the Royal Academy's main awards, the Michael Faraday Prize for Scientific Communication.
By Marie-Pierre FEREY
Source: http://www.lesechos.fr/entreprises-sect ... 321833.htm
