Article Archive for November 2013
The Maya were right about 2012 (possibly?)
For a long time now, I have figured that the major possibilities for a scientific prediction from the ancient Maya (or their predecessors) was either a massive solar storm (via noticing patterns in low-latitude auroras) or the return of a long-period comet.
Following a 2012-recap interview over the weekend, I found myself double-checking comet discoveries of recent times, looking for a match I may have missed. I think I have found a possibility. There’s no way of proving that this is what the Long Count calendar was all about, but it is perhaps the best scientific educated guess.
Kreutz Sungrazers
(from Wikipedia)
The Kreutz Sungrazers Listeni/ˈkrɔɪts/ are a family of sungrazing comets, characterized by orbits taking them extremely close to the Sun at perihelion. They are believed to be fragments of one large comet that broke up several centuries ago…
The three most impressive have been the Great Comet of 1843, the Great Comet of …