Debunking Doomsday 2012: Planetary Alignment Theory

Here’s a nice view of the solar system as it should look on Dec. 21, 2012 (not the date in top right corner). Notice none of the planets are aligned; Some aren’t even on-screen. View from Pluto in Orrery Mode. Click to Upscaleify [Screen Shot: Solar Walk 3D for iPad App]

No matter what the date or the state of the cosmos, there always seems to be at least one theory about how the “end is nigh”. These theories always make me laugh a bit, as I have seen many of these “doomsday predictions” come and go in the relatively short time that I have had on the Earth. I remember the Halley’s Comet people who believed the comet (which has a very predictable orbit and can be seen gracing our skies every 75ish years) was being followed by a race of aliens that were going to rain down destruction, in some form, on the Earth and take the few believers away with them. When Halley’s Comet was overhead in 1986, this group of people (known as the “Heaven’s Gate” cult or “bugfuck crazy” people) committed suicide simultaneously in hopes that the aliens would save their mortal souls. I also remember the doom criers of 09.09.1999 and 01.01.2000, as well. I know I’m skipping over a bunch here, but I want to speak on the upcoming doomsday scenarios on 12.21.2012. It should be noted that if you happen to believe in any of these scenarios, this post is not an attempt to assuage your beliefs. There are plenty of people who are unaware of the scientific proof debunking these myths and are unsure as to what the facts are surrounding these theories. This article is meant for those people. I am fully aware that some people can not/will not be convinced that these theories are completely unfounded, but, to be honest, those people aren’t interested in the science anyway as the persistence of belief that these theories are real is proof that these same people have chosen to either ignore the science or haven’t been introduced to it. I’ve heard several theories about the upcoming end of the world. I’ve done one post about solar flares and coronal mass ejections hitting the Earth (Click Here for that Article) and I plan to do a couple more posts about a couple more theories. This post has to do with the Planetary Alignment theory.