2012 Cosmophobia

December is upon us, so it's a good time to take a quick look at why some people think that the world may end a year from now. For several years there have been claims on the Internet that a planet--Nibiru or Planet X--will collide with Earth (or make a catastrophic near-miss) in December of 2012. This planet allegedly orbits the sun every 3600 years, and that the collision coincides with the end of the Mayan calendar is just a bonus.

NASA has some nice material on this, especially the "Ask an Astrobiologist" web-page. Whether you are concerned about this yourself, or are just interested in what types of things people get themselves worked up over, head on over and read the Q&A. The short version is that no such planet exists.

You'll also find these two videos.





To put an LDS twist on this, some people think Nibiru or Planet X could be implicated in this statement by Joseph Smith:

There will be wars and rumors of wars, signs in the heavens above and on the earth beneath, the sun turned into darkness and the moon to blood, earthquakes in divers places, the seas heaving beyond their bounds; then will appear one grand sign of the Son of Man in heaven. But what will the world do? They will say it is a planet, a comet, &c. But the Son of Man will come as the sign of the coming of the Son of Man, which will be as the light of the morning cometh out of the east [History of The Church, 5:336-37].

Whatever Joseph's statement means, I think it's pretty safe to say that it has nothing to do with Nibiru or Planet X...since no such planet exists.


And just for fun, I'll end with Robert Frost's poem, "Fire and Ice."

Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice.
From what I’ve tasted of desire
I hold with those who favor fire.
But if it had to perish twice,
I think I know enough of hate
To say that for destruction ice
Is also great
And would suffice.

---