Astronomy, Fallacies, & 2012 Doomsday Prediction

Such a weak tidal force will have no detectable effect whatsoever on either the Earth or Sun!
Aligned Planets
Doomsday scenarios also claim that the planets will align and their tidal forces will cause destructive
earthquakes. A book called The Jupiter Effect made similar claims in the 1970s. There were no
problems then either.
December 21, 2012 has no more significance in the Mayan calendar than midnight December 31,
1999 has in the modern calendar.
Astronomical Urban Myths about December 21, 2012
Doomsday predictions that the world will end on December 21, 2012 in many 2012 themed books
and the movie 2012 are based on urban myths about astronomy.
Tidal http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limousine forces from astronomical objects depend on their mass
and inversely on the cube of their distance. This dependence allows a simple order of magnitude
estimation of the ratio of the tidal force from the galactic center to that from the Sun.
For an estimate, it suffices to use 8 light minutes (about 500 light seconds) as the distance to the
Sun and about 30,000 light years (9E11 light seconds) as the distance to the galactic center.
Assuming that the galactic mass (about 100 billion times the Sun's mass) is concentrated at the
galactic center, overestimates the tidal force from the galactic center and simplifies the calculation.
Astronomers have identified the center of the Milky Way galaxy as the object Sgr A*. Astronomical
catalogs list the declination of Sgr A* as very nearly 29 degrees south. Because the Sun cannot get
this far south the Sun cannot align with the galactic center.
Tidal Forces from Galactic Center
Even if the Sun could align with the galactic center, the tidal effects would be completely negligible.
Computing planetary positions on December Limo Rental 21, 2012 with a good planetarium or
ephemeris program, shows that the planets will have different positions. They will not align. If they
did, the tidal forces from the planets are more than from the galactic center, but still much less than
from the Sun and Moon.

Many recent books and the major Hollywood movie, 2012, purvey alleged Mayan predictions that the
world will end on the 2012 winter solstice, December 21, 2012. These claims intertwine the Mayan
calendar with some rather dubious astronomy.Mayan Calendar
Doomsday predictions based on the Mayan calendar are not being made by present day Mayans. Are

the people writing 2012 end of the world scenarios based on the Mayan calendar actually
knowledgeable about Mayan culture?
To measure celestial positions, astronomers project latitude and longitude into the sky and call them
declination and right ascension. The Sun's declination is about 23.5 degrees south on the winter
solstice and cannot go further south.
Many people make considerable money spreading panic by preying on those who lack scientific
knowledge. Learn about real science; keep your money.
Further Reading
Krupp, EC. "The Great 2012 Scare" Sky and Telescope, November, 2009.
Doing the math, the tidal force from the galactic center is about 2E17 (200000000000000000) times
weaker than the tidal force from the Sun.

Like the modern calendar, the Mayan calendar

contains cycles of various lengths. On
December 12, 2012 multiple Mayan cycles end
and restart at the same time. The most recent
analogy in the modern calendar was midnight
December 31, 1999, when the day, year,
decade, century, and millennium cycles ended
and started over on January 1, 2000. Astute
readers will recall that despite all the fuss the
world didn't end then either.
Will the world end December 21, 2012? No!
Doomsday purveyors claim on the 2012 winter solstice the Earth, Sun, and center of the Milky Way
galaxy will align, so the Sun eclipses the galactic center. Furthermore doomsday purveyors claim
that tidal forces from this alignment will cause severe disruptive earthquakes to end the world. The
same tidal forces acting on the Sun will trigger severe solar storms devastating Earth. The planets in
the solar system will also allegedly align on December 21, 2012.
Sun Will Not Eclipse Galactic Center
Earth's rotational axis tilts about 23.5 degrees. The December winter solstice occurs when Earth is
at the point in its orbit where the southern hemisphere most directly points towards the Sun. The
Sun is then directly overhead as seen from Earth at 23.5 degrees south latitude, the Tropic of
Capricorn. The Sun cannot appear further south in the sky.