2012: Beginning of the End or Why the World Won't End?
Remember the Y2K scare? It came and went without much of a whimper because of adequate planning and analysis of the situation. Impressive movie special effects aside, Dec. 21, 2012, won't be the end of the world as we know. It will, however, be another winter solstice.
Much like Y2K, 2012 has been analyzed and the science of the end of the Earth thoroughly studied. Contrary to some of the common beliefs out there, the science behind the end of the world quickly unravels when pinned down to the 2012 timeline. Below, NASA Scientists answer several questions that we're frequently asked regarding 2012.
Question (Q): Are there any threats to the Earth in 2012? Many Internet websites say the world will end in December 2012.
问：2012年地球会有任何危险吗？许多网站都说2012是世界末日。
Answer (A): Nothing bad will happen to the Earth in 2012. Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than 4 billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.
答：对地球而言,2012年不会有任何不好的事情发生。地球已经完好的运转了超过40亿年,世界范围内可信的科学家都知道2012年并不会有任何危险。
Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
问：那关于2012世界末日的预言是哪里来的呢？
A: The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Then these two fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.
答:这个预言起初来源自一颗据说是苏美尔人发现的名叫Nibiru的行星将会撞向地球的说法。起初这个大灾难发生的时间被预言为2003年5月，但是那天什么也没发生，所以世界末日被往后移到了2012年12月。然后这2个预言被和古玛雅人日历中的一个循环结束的日期2012年冬至联系了起来。这就是预言中世界末日是2012年12月21日说法的来源。
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
问：玛雅人日历在2012年12月结束吗？
A: Just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012. This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on
January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.
答：就象你家厨房墙上的日历不会超过12月31日，玛雅人的日历也不会超过2012年12月21日。这一天是玛雅人长计数周期的终点。但是，就象你的日历接下来又从1月1日开始,玛雅人的日历也会开始新一轮的长计数周期。
Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
问：行星们如果在同一方向上连成一条直线会对地球有什么影响吗？
A: There are no planetary alignments in the next few decades, Earth will not cross the galactic plane in 2012, and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the Earth would be negligible. Each December the Earth and sun align with the approximate center of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.
答：接下来的几十年当中都不会有这种行星连线的事情发生。地球在2012年将不会穿过银道面，而且即使这种行星连线真的发生，他们对地球的影响也微乎其微。每年冬天地球和太阳都会和银河系的中心连线，但是那只是个例行的事件，没有任何后果。
Q: Is there a planet or brown dwarf called Nibiru or Planet X or Eris that is approaching the Earth and threatening our planet with widespread destruction?
问：有一颗行星，或者是一颗叫Nibiru的棕色矮星，或行星X 或Eris正在逼近地球并且会对地球造成巨大的毁坏吗？
A: Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye. Obviously, it does not exist. Eris is real, but it is a dwarf planet similar to Pluto that will remain in the outer solar system; the closest it can come to Earth is about 4 billion miles.
答：Nibiru和其它行星撞地球的故事是一个网上的骗局,这些说法都没有事实依据,如果Nibiru或者行星X是真的并且他们将会和地球在2012年相遇,那么天文学家们早在10年前就已经开始监测它们了,而且现在它们能被肉眼看见。显然, 它们并不存在。Eris是真的,但它实际上是和冥王星类似的一颗矮行星只会呆在太阳系的外围；它距离地球最近的时候大概40亿英里。
Q: What is the polar shift theory? Is it true that the earth’s crust does a 180-degree rotation around the core in a matter of days if not hours?
问：极地转移理论是什么？地球的外壳将会在几天如果不是几小时之内的话围绕地心旋转180度的说法是真的吗？
A: A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly, with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway.
答：地球发生相反方向的旋转是不可能的。地球大陆确实有缓慢的移动（比如几亿年前南极洲在现在的赤道附近）,但那和地球自转极会逆反的说法是不相关的。然而,许多灾难网站借此来愚弄人们。他们声称地球磁极和自转有关系。地球的磁极的确会不规律的改变, 大约平均400,000年发生一次磁极转换。就我们所知道的,这种磁极转换不会对地球上的生命造成任何伤害。不管怎么说,在接下来的几千年里地球磁极转换发生的可能性是非常低的。
Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
问：地球在2012年有被流星击中的危险吗？
A: The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.
答：地球经常成为彗星和小行星撞击的目标,尽管大的撞击非常罕见。最近一次的大撞击发生在六千五百万年前 , 那次撞击导致了恐龙的灭绝, 现在NASA的天文学家们正进行一个叫太空卫士的调查,目的是在任何大的小行星击中地球之前发现他们,我们已经测定没有能象灭绝恐龙那么大的小行星威胁地球。所有这些工作都是公开进行的,NASA的 NEO Program 官方网站每天都更新最新发现。所以你可以自己去看,2012年没有任何东西预测会撞击地球。
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
问：NASA的科学家们对即将到来的世界末日伦有什么看法？
A: For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? There is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the Internet, we cannot change that simple fact. There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.
答：对于任何关于2012年会有灾难或者巨大变化的说法，科学在哪里？证据在哪里？没有。对于所有虚构的断言，不管书上，电影里，还是文献中或者是网上，都不能改变这个事实。2012年有灾难发生的说法没有任何的可信的证据。
Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
问：2012年会因为巨大的太阳风暴而有危险吗？
A: Solar activity has a regular cycle, with peaks approximately every 11 years. Near these activity peaks, solar flares can cause some interruption of satellite communications, although engineers are learning how to build electronics that are protected against most solar storms. But there is no special risk associated with 2012. The next solar maximum will occur in the 2012-2014 time frame and is predicted to be an average solar cycle, no different than previous cycles throughout history.
答：太阳活动有一个规律的周期,大约每11年出现一次高峰。在高峰期，太阳耀斑会对卫星通讯造成一些干扰,尽管工程师们正在学会如何建造免受大多数太阳风暴影响的电子仪器,但2012年并没有任何特别的危险。下一次太阳风暴高峰会在2012－2014年之间,并且它被预测为一次普通的太阳活动周期，和整个历史上的其它太阳周期没有任何不同。
