Real, broken story Doomsday

From the first half of 2011, near the time of 2012, many unusual natural phenomena have occurred such as earthquakes in Japan, or comets Elenin will pass very close to the Earth later this year to make more and more people think the end of the world has come .

In early 2008, for the first time, a Vietnamese website mentioned this apocalypse, which is an article of Thienvanvietnam.org , the article mentions the possibility of predicting the end of the world that may come in. around the beginning of the 21st century, including the prediction of the Mayan calendar that December 21, 2012 will be Earth's apocalypse.

The Mayan calendar and the end of the cycle are over 5000 years

Let's go back to the cause of December 21, 2012, rumored to be the end of the human world.

In fact, December 21, 2012 is the last day in the Mayan calendar - a highly developed civilization between 250 and 900 AD (Central) in Central America. Maya was known for her unique architectural works and astronomical and astrological knowledge at the time. I think it is necessary to have the lines first to explain to the readers about this calendar system and why it ended on December 21 next year.

The Mayan originally used two cycles of the basic calendar (like our current year cycle), the Tzolk'in calendar, which lasted 260 days and the Haab calendar lasted nearly the 365 days of the solar calendar today. There is also a short cycle of 13 days and a 20-day cycle.

Then the Maya combined these two calendar systems into a 52-year cycle (equivalent to the relative length of a generation / dynasty). So every time when the 52-year period ends, their calendar will have to be rewritten (we should remember that the Mayans do not use the numbering calendar system as we use it, which is how many years are increased. OK).

The end of the world has 17 months to go?

In order to have a longer cycle than the Maya created a more efficient way of calculating schedules, using 5 cycle values ​​with numbers 13 and 20 are the basic values ​​used (according to the concept of this civilization). then these are the two numbers with the highest position representing the absolute). They chose a date that is equivalent to our calendar today, August 11, 3114 before the sun to make the first day of this long cycle (which they consider to be the beginning of the world and the new civilization), day. that is denoted by 0.0.0.0.1, the following days will be 0.0.0.0.2, 0.0.0.0.3, .

By day 19 the symbol will be 0.0.0.0.19, the 20th day will be rounded to the next number row and will be 0.0.0.1.0, day 21 is 0.0.0.1.1, to the 39th day is 0.0. 0.1.19 and day 40 are 0.0.0.2.0, like that every number in the next row (rows from 2 only count to 17 and the 5th row means the last row only to 13) will be incremental to 19 before moving to the next row.

Particularly the outer row (the highest unit) is conventionally only the maximum value of 13, ie the last day in the cycle will be 13.0.0.0.0, which is equivalent to the end of the calendar cycle. 5126 years long.

This convention date is 13.0.0.0.0 which is equivalent to the upcoming December 21, 2012.

End cycle and Apocalypse

The Maya themselves believe that there will be a great transformation or some great alternative whenever a long cycle ends. They believed that August 11, 3114 before the Sun (day 0.0.0.0.1) was the day of civilization creation and the human world today replaces an old age, and therefore the end date has If that happens again, humanity may be wiped out and may be replaced by a new era.

The subject was exploited in the 2007 " Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls " movie in which Harrison Ford had to assemble 13 Mayan legend skulls to save the world or Earth would be beaten. Turn off its current spin axis.

From 1995 up to now, there have been rumors coming from a website that there is a planet X going through Earth's orbit around this time and will bump into the Earth and that will be the end of the day. so, maybe it will fall on December 21, 2012 as the Mayan calendar mentions.

However, we should know that astronomers deny this information, and if a planet or asteroid is large enough to collide and destroy the Earth with just over a year coming, it must be has been observed for a long time.

Just like the earthquake that happened in the Pacific several months ago, merely the lithosphere movements on the Earth's crust still happened for hundreds of millions of years, don't forget that with a short life of only a few dozen years We may be rare and special, but with the life span of billions of years of this planet, it is a fairly regular activity.

The fact that comet Elenin flies so close to the Earth is not only nothing to worry about but also a great opportunity for astronomers in particular as well as all astronomers in general to have a very good opportunity to observe. details a comet. Even the Solar System is approaching the galaxy's main plane, with a huge gap in the galaxy, at a time when it could destroy the Earth, it was just over a year ago. Its already enough to make so many disasters, not so peaceful.

Dr. Karl Kruszelnicki in " The Great Moments in Science " wrote the following: " When a calendar goes out of its cycle, it will be turned over to go to the next cycle. In our Western calendar, after December 31 is not the end of the world, but on January 1. So May 13.0.0.0 of the Maya will be followed by the date 0.0.0.0.1. is December 22, 2012 - there are only a few days left for Christmas shopping . " So please rest assured that there will be no end to the year and do not forget this article was made on July 12, 2011 (12.19.18.9.12 on the Mayan calendar).

If you read this article after December 21, 2012, don't forget to celebrate it because you're the one who honored the Mayan long life.

Dang Vu Tuan Son (Vietnam Young Astronomical Club - VACA)