The planet re-alignment and other predictions.

Every now and then, I watch shows on Discovery Channel about some old predictions. All kinds of doomed day predictions are out there.

One of the predictions that interests me is some sort of planet re-alignment that supposed to take place around 2012. Does anyone here knows any details about it? Is this any any importance at all, or is it something like a solar eclipse?

Some profits claim to associate major changes with that, some do not. Anyone has an opinion on that?

2012 is sometimes claimed to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or apocalypse). Many esoteric sources interpret the completion of the thirteenth B'ak'tun cycle in the Long Count of the Maya calendar (which occurs on December 21 by the most widely held correlation) to mean there will be a major change in world order.

What that means, if anything, who knows? Depends on what you think of the Mayans, or if you trust the folks who've interpreted their calendar into our time. That's where it comes from though.

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

I read that the Milky Way will be center-aligned with the plane of the sun, moon and planets… That will form what the Mayans called the “Sacred Tree” -- a cross. Nobody knows exactly what that means, but there are a bunch of theories about space-time, UFO’s/Angels, crop circles and whatnot going around…

Some scientists think it’ll cause sunspots and solar flares that will *greatly* affect the weather -- it’s even been said that the move towards the alignment is the cause of “global warming”, and that things will get much worse.

Religious people think it’s going to be the day of the Rapture and the beginning of the end.

The hippie-types think we’re moving into the Age of Aquarius, and that we’ll be pulled into the Milky Way, our pineal glands will be awakened, our chakras will be activated, and there’ll be world peace.

You know, I had never heard of the world "ending" in 2012 until yesterday in relation to some newly discovered planet (Planet X/Nibiru/Eris) doing a flyby that is supposed to cause an apocalyptic like disruption on Earth. The date that keeps popping up is December 21, 2012. I don't know whether anything will really happen, though.....maybe, maybe not.

Eris is a dwarf planet, like Pluto, and was discovered in 2003. Being way out by Pluto, and rather teeny, I don't think we'll have to worry on it's effect too much.

"It truly is the one commonality that every designation of humans you can think of has, there's at least one asshole."
--Me

Interesting responses here. I am sure all of us have heard end of the world predictions but how many of them even were well supported?

I watched some more stuff on this 2012 alignment scenario. They say that small planets will have no affect on us. It is the massive planets that are are usually far away from us that will come closer that should affect the gravitational forces. If that is the case, the strong gravitational pull should "squeeze" the sun somewhat which in turn would cause the sun to burn hotter. After the large planet passes that is like lifting a huge wight off the sun which should cause it to cool. Global warming and global cooling? According to Mayans that happens about every 25,000 years, our science calculates something close to that.

It is very difficult to accept or understand that any changes to earth would happen. We all have lived our lives however long we have lived them and nothing has ever happened. We are creatures of habit, we look to the past to understand the future. Which brings about another point.

Historians disagree on this but many claim that humans as we know them today have been here no more than 30000 years. That is based on fossil samples that we have discovered. They also say that our planet has had major disasters happen every 25000 to 30000 years. Majority of life gets erased, our planet heals itself and life begins all over. We can find remains of very ancient creatures, we can somewhat piont out that many have died off roughly about at the same time. What happened? Mayans called it an end of a cycle and the beginning of a new one. I have no idea how they knew it, but their science seems to be matching with ours. Some of this past could give us a glimpse into the future.

At this time many scientists are unable to calculate exactly when things happen the way they happen. They can tell approximate numbers, let's say withing a 5000 year window. That is too long for a human but not for earth which has been around for 4500000000 (4.5 Billion in USA terms or 4,5 Milliard elsewhere) years or so.

To make a reasonably close predictions to what is going to happen withing our lifetime, we would have to pay attention to things near by. If gravitational fields are getting stronger, the sun should get hotter, as pressure raises heat levels and speeds up a reaction. Our Earth should see some changes such as unusually low or high sea tides. Water levels would be dropping more so near poles and raising hear the equator. Our Earth is not a perfect ball, it is somewhat wides at the Equator and narrower at the poles. This is due to gravity forces of the sun and also due to rotation. Ocean is deeper at the Equator then at the poles.(If we were to exclude ocean floor terrain unevenness) Any changes in gravity to the sun will cause clues to appear here on Earth. Global warming is not a a definite answer because there are too many things that can cause it. However, a very sudden, unexplained rise in solar radiation levels and/or extreme UV levels could be worth looking at. If those are followed by excessive tides (due to water movement because gravitational changes) and even earthquakes (continents move freely on a layer below them, gravity changes will aggravate that), then, we got the re-alignment coming and it is real. So far, the signs that are definite are not seen. Is the alignment really happening in 2012? Astronomers say yes, but they are uncertain of the effects. Some disregard any changes as a possibility.

mars is getting warmer, so is pluto ans every planet is warming up at about the same rate.. and so is the earth.

we have a weird solar thing going on, cycle 24 is very late. sun spots are weird.

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

mercurior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mars is getting warmer, so is pluto ans every
> planet is warming up at about the same rate.. and
> so is the earth.
>
> we have a weird solar thing going on, cycle 24 is
> very late. sun spots are weird.


I did not hear about that one. Mars temperature is a good indication that the sun is heating up. Mars has a thin atmosphere, which does not protect it's surface from solar radiation as much. That is a very good indicator of sun heating up. The earth is a little weird because it should be buffered by our atmosphere layer and water. It should have taken a touch longer to heat it up. But then again, it probably is heating up at the same rate if those factors are taken into consideration.

Ancient creatures were wiped out from Earth because of excessive heat or cold. Those were likely caused by the solar flares or cooling.

The cooling in 1970's and warming of recent years seems to point that sun is getting some other gravitational pull. As sun is being compressed, it initially actually cools somewhat. One the compression has slowed the heat is increased. As the mega-sized planets in our galaxy approach sun, more heat fluctuations should be present until the compression has slowed. Then, the heat will be very detectable. As large planet begins to pull away, cooling fluctuations should begin to take place. Cold will be noticed. How extreme will they be, no one really knows. Last time this has happened was about 25000 years ago, nothing was recorded.

mercurior Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> mars is getting warmer, so is pluto ans every
> planet is warming up at about the same rate.. and
> so is the earth.
>
> we have a weird solar thing going on, cycle 24 is
> very late. sun spots are weird.


Mercurior, tell me more about cycle 24, what is it?

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article1720024.ece

Mars is being hit by rapid climate change and it is happening so fast that the red planet could lose its southern ice cap, writes Jonathan Leake.

Scientists from Nasa say that Mars has warmed by about 0.5C since the 1970s. This is similar to the warming experienced on Earth over approximately the same period.

Since there is no known life on Mars it suggests rapid changes in planetary climates could be natural phenomena.

The mechanism at work on Mars appears, however, to be different from that on Earth. One of the researchers, Lori Fenton, believes variations in radiation and temperature across the surface of the Red Planet are generating strong winds.

************* so its warmed up as much as earth, but its not the same honest guv..


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solar_cycle

http://www.solarcycle24.com/


http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2008/20080104_sunspot.html

A new 11-year cycle of heightened solar activity, bringing with it increased risks for power grids, critical military, civilian and airline communications, GPS signals and even cell phones and ATM transactions, showed signs it was on its way late yesterday when the cycle’s first sunspot appeared in the sun’s Northern Hemisphere, NOAA scientists said.

“This sunspot is like the first robin of spring,” said solar physicist Douglas Biesecker of NOAA’s Space Weather Prediction Center. “In this case, it’s an early omen of solar storms that will gradually increase over the next few years.”

A sunspot is an area of highly organized magnetic activity on the surface of the sun. The new 11-year cycle, called Solar Cycle 24, is expected to build gradually, with the number of sunspots and solar storms reaching a maximum by 2011 or 2012, though devastating storms can occur at any time.

During a solar storm, highly charged material ejected from the sun may head toward Earth, where it can bring down power grids, disrupt critical communications, and threaten astronauts with harmful radiation. Storms can also knock out commercial communications satellites and swamp Global Positioning System signals. Routine activities such as talking on a cell phone or getting money from an ATM machine could suddenly halt over a large part of the globe.


http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/pluto_warming_021009.html

even pluto is warming up

In what is largely a reversal of an August announcement, astronomers today said Pluto is undergoing global warming in its thin atmosphere even as it moves farther from the Sun on its long, odd-shaped orbit.

Pluto's atmospheric pressure has tripled over the past 14 years, indicating a stark temperature rise, the researchers said. The change is likely a seasonal event, much as seasons on Earth change as the hemispheres alter their inclination to the Sun during the planet's annual orbit.

They suspect the average surface temperature increased about 3.5 degrees Fahrenheit, or slightly less than 2 degrees Celsius.

Pluto remains a mysterious world whose secrets are no so easily explained, however. The warming could be fueled by some sort of eruptive activity on the small planet, one astronomer speculated.

The increasing temperatures are more likely explained by two simple facts: Pluto's highly elliptical orbit significantly changes the planet's distance from the Sun during its long "year," which lasts 248 Earth years; and unlike most of the planets, Pluto's axis is nearly in line with the orbital plane, tipped 122 degrees. Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees.

Though Pluto was closest to the Sun in 1989, a warming trend 13 years later does not surprise David Tholen, a University of Hawaii astronomer involved in the discovery.

"It takes time for materials to warm up and cool off, which is why the hottest part of the day on Earth is usually around 2 or 3 p.m. rather than local noon," Tholen said. "This warming trend on Pluto could easily last for another 13 years."

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I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein

Very interesting stuff. It again points to the Year 2012. I gather that our sun and our entire solar system has an orbit as well. Everything rotates. I am not certain how long it takes for our solar system to complete entire circle about it's immediate so called sun, but I gather that we get closer and further from it as we rotate. The distance from it affects the levels of our immediate gravity levels. I am not certain if the subject sun is visible with a naked eye (since it may not necessarily be a "hot" planet), but it's effects can be felt. There are many things outside our solar system but we can see so very few, because we are mainly only able to see the "hot" planets and some others that reflect the light directly. 2012 should be an interesting year, the science says.

Its speed is about 220 kilometers per second, and it completes one revolution every 226 million years.

are you talking about nemesis, the theoretical brown dwarf in the direction of the oort cloud?

and the galactic tide. all non metaphysical,

*********************************************************************************************************************************
I just post the stories, for interest.. for everyone

Lord, what fools these mortals be!
- A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Act III, Scene ii

Voltaire said: "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities."

H.L.Mencken wrote:"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.”

Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former. Albert Einstein