We've Got the Dirt on 2012

Pop-culture tells us that the Mayan calendar "ends" on 2012 and that Mayan legend claims that all life will end with it. It's scared a lot of people but the idea is easily dismissed by simple examination.

First of all, always go to the source. There are still Mayans around these days and one of them, an elder named Apolinario Chile Pixtun is tired of hearing about it:

...the Mayan Indian elder insists. "I came back from England last year and, man, they had me fed up with this stuff." ...Chile Pixtun, a Guatemalan, says the doomsday theories spring from Western, not Mayan ideas.

There's also something in the Mayan calendar about a kids show called "Legends of the Hidden Temple." Archeologists were unable to understand their translations until one of their children left Nickelodeon turned on. Three scientists were seen slapping their foreheads.

There is more. 2012 is not the last day on the Mayan calendar. There are few dates that go beyond 2012 telling us that this is not the end of the world. The famous Mayan calendar that stops at 2012 does not say that the world will end - it is going to stop because it is at the end of a long cycle. Just like your wall calendar stops at December.

However, there should be some interesting astronomical sights that year, Wikipedia lists a few things:

• 433 Eros, the second-largest Near Earth Object on record (size 13×13×33 km) will pass Earth
• A solar eclipse on Sunday, May 20
• The second and last solar transit of Venus of the century.
• Total solar eclipse on November 13
• Jupiter will be in opposition to Earth

I think every year has a number of things like this, so 2012 is not necessarily outstanding for its astronomical phenomenon. 2012 is a fun legend but the facts dispel the myths very quickly. Of course, the presidential election in that year might be frantic enough to make us wish for the end of the world.