In light of all the curiosity and theories regarding the most recent world-ending cataclysm anticipated for the year 2012 (seems like there’s a new expiration date every decade or so), I thought I’d post a nicely informative article from the NASA FAQ page from last Friday, November 6.
(No time? Bottom line…..regardless of the world’s condition in two more years concerning politics, environment and general human silliness, there’s no looming armageddons on the docket. Read on….)
Is there something out there headed our way?
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.
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.
Q: What is the origin of the prediction that the world will end in 2012?
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.
Q: Does the Mayan calendar end in December 2012?
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.
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.
Q: Could a phenomena occur where planets align in a way that impacts Earth?
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.
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?
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.
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?
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.
Q: Is the Earth in danger of being hit by a meteor in 2012?
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.
Q: How do NASA scientists feel about claims of pending doomsday?
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.
Q: Is there a danger from giant solar storms predicted for 2012?
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.
There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012.
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So. Enjoy the movie for what it’s worth, but don’t cancel your vacation plans or max out the credit cards just yet…Earth is going to be around for a bit longer. (Which is good, because there’s some great exploration missions greenlighted for the next couple of decades and I’d like to be around to post the pictures here. 
)
If anything, we need to make sure we’re not the cause of any more destruction. I doubt even the Mayans could have predicted the extent of the havoc people have managed to wreak upon the world in the last hundred years.
Rhea and the Rings
949-mile-wide Rhea floats in front of the rings and the brightly-lit face of Saturn in this image from Cassini, taken on November 8.
The face of Saturn, overexposed here in order to see detail in the rings and Rhea, appears as bright white, making a dramatic studio backdrop. The planet’s uppermost atmospheric haze is also visible along its limb, behind which the far side of the rings disappear.
I’m not sure what the smaller moon is. Perhaps Mimas? Open to clarification.
Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Big shadow cast upon Saturn
This was a suprising find amongst the raw images from Cassini this evening….a photo of Saturn, similar to the one I posted previously, but with a massive shadow cast upon its southern hemisphere. I presume it’s from Titan, somewhere out of frame, based upon its size and hazy edges (indicative of the big moon’s thick atmosphere.) Still, I can’t recall seeing a moon shadow cast this big on Saturn’s cloudtops before. It struck me as a little unusual.
This is the raw image, rotated 90º clockwise but otherwise unedited. See the original here.
Image: NASA/JPL/SSI
Moons Rhea and Enceladus orbit along the ringplane in this view from Cassini, taken November 6, 2009.
That is, I think it’s Rhea and Enceladus in this image. It’s hard to tell for sure from this distance. (Cassini was over 1.2 million miles from Saturn when this was shot.) If anyone knows for sure, I’m open to correction.
I added some detail here that was not in the original raw image; the clouds visible in Saturn’s atmosphere are taken from another image, shot the previous day from a similar angle but with less exposure.
I am assuming the smaller moon is Enceladus based upon its apparent size, location and brightness…covered in ice, Enceladus is one of the most reflective worlds in the solar system.
Image: NASA/JPL/SSI/J. Major
Photo of the Sun by Alan Friedman
Yesterday’s Astronomy Picture of the Day was this fantastic image by the talented Alan Friedman, showing the sphere of our Sun taken in a special wavelength of light emitted by hydrogen gas and then inverted to look blue. Incredible details of the Sun’s surface – the chromosphere – become visible, most notably the texture caused by raised tubes of magnetically-contained plasma covering the surface called spicules.
From this distance the spicules create a carpet-like texture. But each one is a winding, magnetically-contained tube of hot gas traveling at 30,000 mph, hundreds of miles wide and half as long as the Earth. They constantly rise and fall across the surface of the sun, lasting about five minutes each. (Watch a video of them in action.)
In addition some bright solar prominences are visible along the edges of the Sun.
Alan Friedman’s photography features wonderful views of celestial objects both familiar and exotic, expertly composed with an eye for the inherent art only nature can create. Visit his website for more images: www.avertedimagination.com. (This will also have a permanent home in my sidebar.)
Image: Alan Friedman. Used with permission.
On Monday JAXA released more footage taken by the KAGUYA orbiter during its lunar mapping mission. KAGUYA spent several months flying over the moon at altitudes ranging from 10-50km (about 6-30 miles) taking video with its high-definition camera before finally ending its mission and crash landing onto the moon on June 10, 2009.
The sequence below is from the most recently released series of videos. It shows the 30+ mile-wide crater Anaxagoras in beautiful high-definition color, shot with the camera’s telephoto lens. This one is one of my favorites from the mission…..the details in the crater walls are amazing! Check out more videos on the JAXA site here, or in the video section of my sidebar. I’ll be adding more soon.
It’s nice to see new images from KAGUYA even now, five months after its demise.
Video: JAXA/NHK
Mercury in full color
With the third and last flyby of Mercury by the MESSENGER spacecraft, NASA scientists have now imaged nearly 98 percent of the surface of the first planet from our sun. The photo above shows a color-calibrated view of a crescent Mercury, acquired on September 29.
This will be the last close-up color image of Mercury from MESSENGER until the spacecraft enters orbit in March of 2011. The remaining areas of Mercury to be imaged are in the polar regions, and those will be mapped at that time.
One of the previously unseen features is a large double-ring impact crater, seen above at upper left, estimated at a “youthful” 1 billion years old. (Other similar features on Mercury are 4 times that age!)
Read the official press release here.
Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington
Mimas floats above the rings
This raw image from Cassini requires no editing to be presentable…..it’s simply a beautiful shot of Mimas hovering in front of the rings with Saturn’s shadow cast across them.
Simple, untouched beauty at its best. That little Cassini….he’s getting good at this.
Image: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
Enceladus' Ice Geysers
The data is in from today’s flyby of Enceladus and the images so far have not disappointed! The moon’s characteristic southern jets are running at full power, seen above, backlit by the sun and thereby easily visible to Cassini’s cameras. Below are a couple more images, one of Enceladus’ illuminated icy face with Saturn’s ringplane just visible behind, and a more detailed view of the moon’s heavily fractured surface.
Cassini made a low pass over Enceladus, flying 68 miles above the moon and passing through the icy vapors of the plumes in order to gain more data about their composition. It’s possible that the plumes are fed by a subsurface ocean of liquid water, or at least large reservoirs of water, heated by tectonic activity and forced upwards through cracks in the moon’s southern region.
This was the seventh such flyby of Enceladus during the course of the Cassini mission.
Hopefully we’ll be seeing even more images soon!
Enceladus' bright face (image adjusted to show details)
About the size of Arizona – 318 miles across – Enceladus is composed of a lot of water ice and is thus very bright. It reflects almost 100% of the sunlight that it receives. This also makes the moon very cold…its surface temperature is measured at -330ºF! (Not very much like Arizona at all.)
Ridges, fractures and "corrugated terrain"
The surface of the moon is very textured in places, smooth in others. The region where the plumes originate is marked by deep troughs, known as “tiger stripes”. Geologically young, the surface of Enceladus is believed to be less than 100 million years old.
Backlit plumes
“Of all the geologic provinces in the Saturn system that Cassini has explored, none has been more thrilling or carries greater implications than the region at the southernmost portion of Enceladus.”
– Carolyn Porco, Cassini Imaging Team Leader, December 2008.
See more images from the flyby on the Cassini Imaging site here.
Image credits: NASA/JPL/Space Science Institute
3D rendering of Enceladus
Later today, Monday, November 2, the Cassini spacecraft will execute another close flyby of Saturn’s moon Enceladus and take some highly detailed images of the south polar region – the source of the little moon’s enigmatic jets. We should hopefully see some image data returned by the afternoon.
The image above is a rendering made with the latest maps of the moon. Just for fun.
Looking forward to some interesting photos!
Saturn in full color
A beautiful natural-color calibrated image by Gordan Ugarkovic, showing the many subtle and varied hues of Saturn’s atmosphere and rings.
Image: NASA/JPL/SSI/Gordan Ugarkovic.
Axel Mellinger's All-Sky Panorama
Talk about lights in the dark!
The image above is a low-res version of what amounts to 22 months of dedicated work by Central Michigan University astronomer Axel Mellinger, traveling across the United States and South Africa and assembling over 3,000 individual images to create the most extensive and detailed – and zoomable – portrait of our Milky Way galaxy as seen from our vantage point here on Earth.
Click the image to visit his site; click here to see the zoomable high-res version. Absolutely incredible.
“This panorama image shows stars 1000 times fainter than the human eye can see, as well as hundreds of galaxies, star clusters and nebulae.” – Axel Mellinger
Due to the huge amount of processing needed to adjust the photos for color, distortion and ambient lighting differences to make a single seamless and accurate image, a dedicated processing pipeline had to be created. Mellinger used a Linux PC with an Intel Core2 Quad (Q9400) CPU and 16 GB of RAM to process the final image. He intends to make the full-resolution 648-megapixel version available to planetariums.
Read the official press release here.
Image © 2009 Axel Mellinger
