Depending on the doomsday theory, if the world hasn’t ended already and you’ve lived to read this article, the world will end sometime today because the Mayan calendar has neared its expiration date or because the planet Nibiru is about to hit Earth, or because galactic alignment will cause the gravitational release of hidden asteroids, whatever that may be.

Whatever the cause, thanks to thousands of doomsday websites and an ancient Mayan calendar, many people around the world believe human existence comes screeching to a halt today.

If you are fearing something will happen, feel free to watch ‘Meteor Storm’, ‘The Day the Earth Stood Still’, ‘The Day the Earth Caught Fire’, ‘Armageddon’, ‘Deep Impact’, ‘Waiting for Armageddon’, ‘4:44 Last Day on Earth’, and ‘Collision Earth’, among other ‘end of the world’ movies.

In China, the theory is held by about 20% of the population according to an Ipsos poll, only behind the United States and Turkey, both at 22%.

Like other countries around the world, an imminent apocalypse was heavily evident through the number of websites, such as the widely popular micro-blogging website Sina Weibo which has more than 12 million comments containing the phrase "2012 End of the World". 

Chinese around the country have been wiping store shelves clean of candles and other supplies, amid widespread rumours that three days of total darkness will commence on December 21.

Liu Qiyuan from Xianghe in central Hebei province never thought he'd receive the attention he has at the moment. The 45-year-old former furniture-maker now builds "survival pods" - each with the capacity to hold 14 people - that can safely navigate tsunami waves 1,000-metres high.

So will the world end today? According to National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) scientists - the agency of the US government responsible for the nation's civilian space programme and for aeronautics and aerospace research scientists - the world won’t end but will only bear witness to just another winter solstice - an annual event with no consequences.

A solstice is an astronomical event that occurs twice each year as the Sun reaches its highest or lowest excursion relative to the celestial equator on the celestial sphere.

Answering a series of questions through Nasa’s website related to the doomsday phenomenon, and posed by a number of concerned site visitors, Nasa scientists say: “Our planet has been getting along just fine for more than four billion years, and credible scientists worldwide know of no threat associated with 2012.

The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed towards earth. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 - hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.

Scientists say that just as the calendar you have on your kitchen wall does not cease to exist after December 31, the Mayan calendar does not cease to exist on December 21, 2012.

“This date is the end of the Mayan long-count period but then -- just as your calendar begins again on January 1 -- another long-count period begins for the Mayan calendar.”

Is the space agency predicting a "total blackout" of earth between Sunday, 23 December and Christmas Day?

Absolutely not. Neither Nasa nor any other scientific organisation is predicting such a blackout. The false reports on this issue claim that some sort of “alignment of the Universe” will cause a blackout. There is no such alignment. Some versions of this rumour cite an emergency preparedness message from Nasa Administrator Charles Bolden. This is simply a message encouraging people to be prepared for emergencies, recorded as part of a wider government preparedness campaign. It never mentions a blackout though.

Could planets align in a way that impacts earth?

According to Nasa, “there are no planetary alignments in the next few decades and even if these alignments were to occur, their effects on the earth would be negligible. One major alignment occurred in 1962, for example, and two others happened during 1982 and 2000.

“Each December the earth and sun align with the approximate centre of the Milky Way Galaxy but that is an annual event of no consequence.”

But is the earth in danger of being hit by some meteor?

The earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Nasa astronomers carried out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-earth asteroids long before they hit. Nasa claims that “we have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the Nasa Near-Earth Object Programme Office website.”

For any claims of disaster or dramatic changes in 2012, where is the science? Where is the evidence? According to Nasa, there is none, and for all the fictional assertions, whether they are made in books, movies, documentaries or over the internet, we cannot change that simple fact.

There is no credible evidence for any of the assertions made in support of unusual events taking place in December 2012, so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit earth, at least we hope so!

WATCH

Nostradamus-psy-and–doomsday @

http://tinyurl.com/c72adf8

IF THE WORLD WON’T END, WATCH THIS TOMORROW

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QY_Gc1bF8ds