The Apocalypse 2012 Part 3

So the earth is going to be no more on 21 December 2012. What will happen to wipe it out?
I have covered the reversal of the sun's and the earth's magnetic fields. What else could happen?

One theory is that there is going to be an alignment of planets such that the combined gravitational force could pull the earth away from the sun or tear the earth apart. In fact there was a small conjunction/alignment in December 2008 with no discernible effect and anyway if all the planets were in the same alignment the combined gravitational pull would be miniscule compared with the normal gravitational pull of the sun and the moon. We have also had alignments in the past with no effect, for example in 1962, and 2000, and more are expected in 2040 and 2675.There will be no alignment in 2012.

This was the cheering news from Dame Burnell speaking at a conference organised by the Scientific and Medical Network, on Patterns of Apocalyptic Thought. I shall be writing up the conference in full by the end of November at Conscious Connection.

To be continued this week -  impact from matter in space and what else?

The Apocalypse 2012 Part 2

Every 300,000 years or thereabouts, the earth's magnetic field reverses - it stops spinning and starts spinning the other way. The last time this happened was 750,000 years ago so this one is overdue. But man has seen 11 such reversals since he first made his own tools, and none of these have been linked with any mass extinctions, let alone the end of the earth. And the whole process takes about 500 years each time!
We may be at the beginning of a reversal process now - but no significant associated problem of any kind is foreseen. 
But note - the spin of the earth does not change - it doesn't suddenly stop spinning one way and start spinning the other! Now there's an interesting thought!

This was the heartening news of Dame Burnell who was speaking at a conference organised by the Scientific and Medical Network, on Patterns of Apocalyptic Thought. I shall be writing up the conference in full by the end of November at Conscious Connection.


To be continued this week - planet alignments and impact from matter in space.

The Apocalypse 2012 Part 1

The world is going to come to an end according to The Mayan Calendar on December 21 next year. Really?
I've just heard Professor Dame Jocelyn Bell Burnell FRS DBE - and she is quite an expert on matters astronomical - explain why the various cosmic theories are just a load of star dust!

Theory One - The sun's magnetic field will reverse and/or solar storms will take out the earth.
Actually the magnetic field reversal happens every 11 years - man has lived through something like a quarter of a million such reversals since he first invented tools - and the next one is due in 2021 anyway, not 2012. As for solar storms, they tend to be related to sunspots, also on 11 year cycles, the next one expecting to peak in 2013 and it looks as if it is going to be the lowest peak for 100 years. So actually fewer solar storms are expected, and they certainly don't look as if they'll take out the earth.

BUT - she did warn that it's not a good idea to be an astronaut in space near such solar storms as increased radiation from the storms makes navigation vulnerable, and that goes for GPS, mobiles etc that depend on satellites. 

Dame Burnell was speaking at a conference organised by the Scientific and Medical Network, on Patterns of Apocalyptic Thought. I shall be writing up the conference in full by the end of November at Conscious Connection.

To be continued this week - the earth's magnetic field, planet alignments and impact from matter in space.