Two months left...

[Raellus]

I'm more concerned about people taking this end-of-the-world thing seriously than I am about an otherwise innocuous alignment with the center of the galaxy.

+1

People who think the Maya predicted the end of the world know next to nothing about Maya culture, math, and cosmology. If you do just a little research -staying away from material published by the myriad New Age opportunists that have been coming out of the woodwork for the past couple of years- you will soon learn that the "Mayan Prophecy" stuff is a load of steaming Bantha Poodoo.

On the other hand, I'm sure there's plenty of nutcases ready and willing to hasten armageddon as 12/21/21012 rolls around.

[raketenjagdpanzer]

+1

People who think the Maya predicted the end of the world know next to nothing about Maya culture, math, and cosmology. If you do just a little research -staying away from material published by the myriad New Age opportunists that have been coming out of the woodwork for the past couple of years- you will soon learn that the "Mayan Prophecy" stuff is a load of steaming Bantha Poodoo.

On the other hand, I'm sure there's plenty of nutcases ready and willing to hasten armageddon as 12/21/21012 rolls around.

Now that - I do believe in and agree with you 100%...!

[pmulcahy11b]

Well, if the world ends in two months, that's good. No more body pain, I don't have to continue exercising and dieting anymore, and I don't have to worry about buying any Christmas presents or stringing up the lights!

But to tell the truth, I have wanted to be at one of the Mayan ruins on 12/21/12 since I was 10 years old and first read about the Mayans. It would be interesting to see what happens. Even if nothing happens, it would make a great vacation.

[Legbreaker]

For all those who know the truth and believe the world will end, send me all your money today and I'll let you onto my spaceship set to take off for the new colony on Alpha Centuri on the 1st of December.

[pmulcahy11b]

Forget the end of the world, what about the end of everything

That was good. I'll have to buy the book. Once more, unto the Amazon...

[pmulcahy11b]

For all those who know the truth and believe the world will end, send me all your money today and I'll let you onto my spaceship set to take off for the new colony on Alpha Centuri on the 1st of December.

Alpha Centauri would be the wrong target to shoot for, considering that it's actually a system of three binaries. How 40 Eridani In Star Trek, that's the home star of the Vulcans. There's something about those Vulcan women -- they're so cool and collected on the outside, but inside, there might be an animal in bed...

[Targan]

Alpha Centauri would be the wrong target to shoot for, considering that it's actually a system of three binaries. How 40 Eridani In Star Trek, that's the home star of the Vulcans. There's something about those Vulcan women -- they're so cool and collected on the outside, but inside, there might be an animal in bed...

Alpha Centauri is a trinary system, with two stars of similar size to our sun orbiting each other around a central point and a third, red dwarf star orbiting both larger stars. Recent data suggests there is at least one rocky planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B. It remains entirely possible that there are earth-like planets around either or both Alpha Centauri A and B.

[Webstral]

There's something about those Vulcan women -- they're so cool and collected on the outside, but inside, there might be an animal in bed...

I often have thought that an interesting work of erotic fiction would take the reader through a relationship between a human male, from whose perspective the story would be told, and a Vulcan female. We could witness a constant and ferocious battle within the Vulcan female as wrestles with the logic of being open to new experiences (and perhaps rebelling a bit against the teachings of elders she escaped by joining Starfleet) and toeing the line regarding logic and emotional control. Three steps forward, two steps back, as it were.

[Webstral]

Recent data suggests there is at least one rocky planet orbiting Alpha Centauri B.

Now that's exciting! A & B orbit sufficiently distantly from each other that the habitable zone of both planets lies within the "safe" distance about each star; i.e., the gravity from the companion star would not perturb the orbit of a planet orbiting either star within the life zones. Too cool.

[mikeo80]

For all those who know the truth and believe the world will end, send me all your money today and I'll let you onto my spaceship set to take off for the new colony on Alpha Centuri on the 1st of December.

Leg,

Let's see here... I have a little over $5.00. (An accumulation of all the $0.02 I have shared with the forum )

Will that let me on board

My $0.02

Mike

[weswood]

Ya'll are missing the whole point! It's the ZOMBIE apocolypse that will happen on Dec 21. Haven't ya'll heard even the gub'mint is training for it Plus there's the new "Zombie Killer" ammo out All the zombie books and movies and games We're all gonna die!!!!!!!

[HorseSoldier]

There has been a protracted psy-ops campaign by the military-entertainment complex to desensitize and prepare people for the zombie apocalypse . . .

[Cdnwolf]

All end of world scenarios mention a comet or asteriod hitting earth... hmmm I wonder why google sky view is hiding everything in this sector of the sky

[Targan]

Now that's exciting! A & B orbit sufficiently distantly from each other that the habitable zone of both planets lies within the "safe" distance about each star; i.e., the gravity from the companion star would not perturb the orbit of a planet orbiting either star within the life zones. Too cool.

One of the more popular theories surrounding the formation of earth-like planets is that, in our solar system, the gravitational influences of Jupiter and Saturn perturbed the orbits of comets in the Oort Cloud, bringing the comets into the inner system where some of them dumped their water on the Earth and Mars.

The Alpha Centauri A-B-Proxima system doesn't seem to have any large gas giants but the weird interactions of the 3 stars as they orbit each other may have fulfilled a similar role in bringing comets into the habital zones. It's not out of the question that there could be one or more rocky planets in one of the habital zones that received enough cometary water to end up with an Earth-like land-water mix.

[Cdnwolf]

The sun unleased a powerful solar flare late Monday (Oct. 22), releasing waves of radiation into space that have already caused a short radio blackout on Earth.

The flare erupted from the sunspot AR 11598 (short for Active Region 11598), and reached peak brightness at 11:22 p.m. EDT (0322 GMT this morning, Oct. 23), according to scientists working on NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO), a space telescope that constantly monitors the sun with high-definition cameras. It ranked as an X1.8 solar flare, one of the strongest types of solar flares, according to the U.S. Space Weather Prediction Center (SWPC) run by NOAA and the National Weather Service.

The same sunspot produced three strong flares before this one in just the two days since it became visible from Earth's perspective. "This means more flares are probably in the offing, and they will become increasingly Earth-directed as the sunspot turns toward our planet in the days ahead," astronomer Tony Phillips

The sun is getting more and more active lately as it approaches an expected peak of magnetic activity in January 2013.