An article has been appearing in blogs and at forums. It says, in part:

To avert a possible catastrophe – this time set for February 2013 – scientists suggest confronting asteroid 2012 DA14 with either paint or big guns. The stickler is that time has long run out to build a spaceship to carry out the operation.

­NASA’s data shows the 60-meter asteroid, spotted by Spanish stargazers in February, will whistle by Earth in 11 months. Its trajectory will bring it within a hair’s breadth of our planet, raising fears of a possible collision.

The asteroid, known as DA14, will pass by our planet in February 2013 at a distance of under 27,000 km (16,700 miles). This is closer than the geosynchronous orbit of some satellites.

There is a possibility the asteroid will collide with Earth, but further calculation is required to estimate the potential threat and work out how to avert possible disaster, NASA expert Dr. David Dunham told students at Russia’s University of Electronics and Mathematics.

“The Earth’s gravitational field will alter the asteroid’s path significantly. Further scrupulous calculation is required to estimate the threat of collision,” said Dr. Dunham, as transcribed by Russia’s Izvestia. “The asteroid may break into dozens of small pieces, or several large lumps may split from it and burn up in the atmosphere. The type of the asteroid and its mineral structure can be determined by spectral analysis. This will help predict its behavior in the atmosphere and what should be done to prevent the potential threat,” said Dr. Dunham.

Now, David Dunham is an expert, but he is not representing NASA. And the article originates from Russian news service RT.

NASA’s official stance is that the asteroid is not a potential hazard until 2020. They have not hidden how close it will come in 2013. There seems to be differences in size estimates as well. NASA has it at 44m in diameter, RT says 60m. The general rule of thumb is that 50m or less will break up in the atmosphere, but larger will remain intact and is therefore more hazardous.

Reasons for ignoring this story:

• Last June 2011 MD came within 11,000 miles of Earth. 16,800 miles is still close, but closer asteroids have not struck us
• The story came from Russia, and possibly the message got muddled via transcription and translation
• Dunham has not published the information himself anywhere
• NASA would not neglect to include Earth’s gravity in their calculations. Perhaps Dunham has added gravity to an equation that already included it?

Asteroid 2012 DA14: Earth Impact in 2013? is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

This isn’t just a 2012 problem – in newspapers and tabloid television, “experts” can find it easy to dismiss a topic by misrepresenting it and then debunking it. This is unfortunate because most of the public learns about conspiracy-type topics from these experts. Let’s take a little look at how 2012 is misrepresented in popular media:

Nomenclature

In interviews I almost always get introduced in the same manner – Robert Bast, who believes the world will end in 2012. And every time I correct their sensationalism – I think the end of the world, as we know it (TEOTWAWKI) could occur in 2012.

It really is a double-edged sword. Most 2012ers are preparing to survive or become light-beings or ascend. None of these are the end of the world (EOTW), in which everything ends. Yet the media uses EOTW. And the experts drolly state “the Maya only believe in cycles, not an end“. Misrepresentation has 2012ers looking like idiots, and the message is lost.

For example, this letter and response yesterday at the Memphis Flyer:

Reader: Maybe an economic meltdown, maybe global warming or a new ice age, maybe the supervolcano in Yellowstone Park, or a comet, or something.

Columnist: As long as people have been people, they’ve been convinced the world was about to end. It hasn’t ended yet.

That is a common response – every end of the world prophecy so far has failed to come true, because we are still here. Which is why smart 2012ers don’t say EOTW or TEOTWAWKI – they say Shit Hits The Fan (SHTF). It’s an acknowledgement of the variety of tragedies that can occur, and that our preparations should be as all-encompassing as they can be. People can relate to SHTF, it can be anything from losing your job, to gang warfare in your neighborhood, to a hurricane, to a global cataclysm. It’s just a shame that Americans are so uncomfortable using the word shit.

Comets and Asteroids and Planet X / Nibiru

A comet striking Earth or flying close by in 2012 is a genuine possibility. While the scientific threat is a constant one, the return of a comet is pretty much the only catastrophe that an ancient culture could have predicted for a certain date. NASA cannot tell us with certainty that no comet is heading our way – a doomsday comet might only be spotted months before collision, and a dark comet might not be spotted at all.

Yet in popular media, the comet threat is ignored. You might hear great detail about how NASA has spotted every meaningful asteroid, and how Planet X isn’t real, but they conveniently do not discuss comets. Lately Comet Elenin has been discussed, but only that specific comet which is clearly not coming anywhere near our planet.

LHC – Large Hadron Collider

This is pretty much the only 2012 topic which warrants EOTW. According to some, the Large Hadron Collider experiments could create a black hole that rapidly grows and erases our planet from existence. End of the World.

SHTF vs EOTW vs TEOTWAWKI is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

The comet was discovered by Hawaii’s Pan-STARRS 1 telescope which scans areas of the sky for dangerous asteroids. It is early days, but they estimate that:

The comet will likely come within about 30 million miles (50 million kilometers) of the sun in February or March 2013 — about the same distance as the planet Mercury, researchers said.

During its closest approach to Earth in two years, comet C/2011 L4 (PANSTARRS) likely to be visible low in the western sky shortly after sunset, weather permitting.

…”The comet has an orbit that is close to parabolic, meaning that this may be the first time it will ever come close to the sun, and that it may never return,” said the University of Hawaii’s Richard Wainscoat in a statement.

The close to parabolic orbit means that this could actually be a long period comet, one that an ancient culture might have tracked previously. February/March 2013 is very close to Dec 21 2012, given that predicting the return of long period comets is very a difficult task. It can’t be the return of Comet Caesar, as that comet was visible in a different part of the sky, during the middle of the day.

Meanwhile:

A newly discovered house-sized asteroid will miss the Earth by less than 17,700 km (11,000 miles) on Monday June 27, 2011. That’s about 23 times closer than the Moon. The size and location of the asteroid, named 2011 MD, should allow observers in certain locations to take a look at the space rock, even with small telescopes. It’s closest approach will be at 13:26 UTC on June 27.

The estimated size is between 9 to 45 meters, just under the 50 meter limit, where any asteroids of that size or less are expected to completely burn up and disintegrate should they enter our atomosphere. Over 50 meters is a real threat.

Two days warning. If it was a larger asteroid, heading for where you live, would you be able to escape? This is one of the many reasons to have your plans made ahead of time.

New Comet, New Asteroid is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

“a new study of ancient copper mines in southern Israel found that the strength of the magnetic field could double and then fall back down in less than 20 years.” This could be local, or global, they don’t seem sure. But it is certainly something scientists previously did not believe possible.

Why build bunkers when you can protect an entire city with a massive dome?

The concept would supposedly keep the city safe from a category-5 hurricane.

Tunguska was not the only explosion of its type last century – there’s actually a list of them at Wikipedia. A good candidate to add to that list is a powerful blast that struck British Guyana in 1935. An expedition “reported seeing an area some miles across where the trees had been broken off about 25 feet above their bases“, while numerous people witnessed a “large meteoroid/small asteroid entry“. One day a town or city will be the victim, and we can’t stop it. Hopefully 2012 will not be a time where these events become commonplace.

Rapid Magnetic Changes / Houston Dome / Another Tunguska is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

This time the sinkhole is in Germany, measuring 30 meters across, and 20 meters deep. Six houses were evacuated. Photo over at a News Corp site.

Author John Perkins (Confessions of an Economic Hit Man) has posted his thoughts on 2012 at the Huffington Post. He explains how the 2012 meme has become, proven by his numerous forthcoming speaking engagements, a “tidal wave of change that is flooding human consciousness“. And he quantifies his positive thoughts by referring to how the Popul Vuh describes how “people overthrow an egotistical regime characterized by exploitation and deception and replace it with an enlightened and compassionate one“.

The Association of Space Explorers, has prepared a report on the threat asteroids pose for Planet Earth. The UN is studying the report, which includes plans to detect and deflect any objects in space that might threaten us. The Canadian Space Agency plans to launch a $15-million suitcase-sized satellite next March. They expect NEOSSat will find hundreds of asteroids hiding close to the sun, and will also help prevent collisions between our own satellites.

New Sinkhole / John Perkins / Asteroid Satellite is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

NASA is installing a network of smart cameras across the USA to track fireballs and meteoroids. Soon there will be 15, and then they plan to expand nationwide. These cameras are automated and linked together so that they can triangulate paths and orbits. If NASA was expecting an influx of fireballs (and alternative media outlets are suggesting this is already happening), such data could prove to be important. But it could just be that NASA’s Meteoroid Environment Office is wanting to he more helpful when they get phone calls from the public. More info at PhysOrg, and the official NASA site has live and historical images from the cameras.

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According to the website of Australia’s antidote to “energy drinks”, esc, if you are concerned about 2012, their drink will let you Escape into a zen state of mind!

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The latest in a long line of solar cycle theories has just been published in Nature. NASA have summarised the findings. While it seems to account for the last minimum, I figure it will take accurate predictions for the next few cycles to be proven – and they don’t seem to have even made any predictions about the next maximum.

Meteoroid Tracking / New 2012 Drink / Missing Sunspots is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

A few days ago, the highly-regarded Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell gave a Royal Society lecture about the sham that is 2012. You can watch it online:

http://royalsociety.org/The-end-of-the-world-in-2012/

Now for some criticisms!

You have to wonder about a scientist who doesn’t understand how search engines work, yet we should trust her skills in analyzing the 2012 meme. Seven minutes into the lecture Professor Jocelyn Bell Burnell tells us that there are 56 million Google results when she searches for end of the world in 2012, and the audience laughs. There aren’t, merely 56 million web pages that contain all of those words, somewhere on the page. Any professor should be smart enough to estimate that 56 million people have not made websites about 2012.

Searching for:
“end of the world” 2012
yields just 1.7 million results. Of these 95% or more will be computer-generated spam. Real websites with original content about 2012 probably number around one thousand. Not nearly as interesting or attention grabbing.

I guess you would call this reverse-scaremongering, where smug Royal Society devotees marvel at how many 2012 idiots there must be out there.

Of course she picks on the wackiest 2012 theories, which are the easiest to poke fun at. Yet she does not mention any of the websites where she found the wacky theories, so that people can make their own decisions. If those websites even exist…

The Royal Society Laughs at 2012 is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

With state-funding, a Christian ministry will build a $150 million theme park, featuring a full-size Noah’s Ark, complete with live animals. There will also be a Tower of Babel. Can’t wait to take my family, and it is aiming to open in 2014.

Those 500 million Facebook users now have access to a game all about 2012 – War of 2012. After a magnetic pole shift and solar flares, you are a member of “a tribe that happened to survive the pandemonium aboard the Genesis Ark“. Apart from the back story and the name, it is yet another Civilization clone… Far more interesting would be a prepping game where you have 2012-like deadline to prepare.

Tunguska-like atmospheric explosions occur several times a year, and we know this because NASA satellites spot them. Data on these “bolide” will soon be released so that scientists worldwide can better study them.

Noah’s Ark / Facebook Game / Bolide Data is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

Imagine if you had spotted an asteroid or comet hurtling toward Earth. Or that you became aware of such via the Interweb. It would be very useful to calculate how the collision will affect you, where you are.

In case that unlikely scenario arises, here’s some software that promises to calculate the harm you face.

Lest you be unsatisfied with a simulation of a massive rock barreling down on us, the Web site also provides data on the aftermath, including the size of the crater, the extent of the fireball, and even the height of the tsunami wave, should the object crash into the ocean.

That Unacknowledged Asteroid is a post from: 2012 Blog

©2012 2012 Blog. All Rights Reserved.

• A neutrino observatory consisting of strings of detectors buried deep in Antarctic ice has confirmed that more cosmic rays arrive from some parts of the sky than others, something already observed in the northern hemisphere
• BBC movie show Talking Movies has an interview with Sting about the new 2012 doco called 2012: Time For Change
• Spanish asteroid trackers estimate that asteroid 1999 RQ36 has a chance in 1,000 of crashing into our planet in the year 2182. NASA says 1 in 3,570. At over 500 metres in width, the impact would be catastrophic. Still, you’d expect we’d be able to shift the path of an asteroid by then…

Cosmic Rays / Sting / Asteroid in 2182 is a post from: 2012 Blog

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