NASA scientists took time on Wednesday, Nov. 28, to soothe 2012 doomsday fears, warning against the dark side of Mayan apocalypse rumors — frightened children and suicidal teens who truly fear the world may come to an end Dec. 21.

These fears are based on misinterpretations of the Mayan calendar. On the 21st, the date of the winter solstice, a calendar cycle called the 13th b'ak'tun comes to an end. Although Maya scholars agree that the ancient Maya would not have seen this day as apocalyptic, rumors have spread that a cosmic event may end life on Earth on that day.

Thus NASA's involvement. The space agency maintains a 2012 information page debunking popular Mayan apocalypse rumors, such as the idea that a rogue planet will hit Earth on Dec. 21, killing everyone. (In fact, astronomers are quite good at detecting near-Earth objects, and any wandering planet scheduled to collide with Earth in three weeks would be the brightest object in the sky behind the sun and moon by now.)

"There is no true issue here," David Morrison, an astrobiologist at NASA Ames Research Center, said during a NASA Google+ Hangout event. "This is just a manufactured fantasy."

Real-world consequences

Unfortunately, Morrison said, the fantasy has real-life consequences. As one of NASA's prominent speakers on 2012 doomsday myths, Morrison said, he receives many emails and letters from worried citizens, particularly young people. Some say they can't eat, or are too worried to sleep, Morrison said. Others say they're suicidal.

"While this is a joke to some people and a mystery to others, there is a core of people who are truly concerned," he said.


Not every 2012 apocalypse believer thinks the world will end on Dec. 21. Some, inspired by New Age philosophies, expect a day of universal peace and spiritual transformation. But it's impressionable kids who have NASA officials worried.

"I think it's evil for people to propagate rumors on the Internet to frighten children," Morrison said.

Myths and misconceptions

NASA scientists took questions via social media in the hour-long video chat, debunking doomsday myths from the rogue planet Nibiru to the danger of killer solar flares.

In fact, said NASA heliophysicist Lika Guhathakurta, it's true that the sun is currently in an active phase of its cycle, meaning electromagnetic energy has picked up. Large solar flares can impact electronics and navigation systems on Earth, but satellites monitoring the sun give plenty of warning and allow officials to compensate for the extra electromagnetic activity when it hits our atmosphere. What's more, Guhathakurta said, this particular solar maximum is the "wimpiest" in some time — scientists have no reason to expect solar storms beyond what our planet has weathered in the past.


Nor are any near-Earth objects, planetary or otherwise, threatening to slam into our planet on Dec. 21, said Don Yeomans, a planetary scientist who tracks near-Earth objects at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The only close asteroid approach on the horizon is forecast to occur on Feb. 13, 2013, when an asteroid will pass within 4.5 Earth radii to our planet (for perspective, Earth's radius is 3,963 miles, or 6,378 kilometers). The asteroid is not going to hit Earth, Yeomans said.

Other rumors — that the Earth's magnetic field will suddenly reverse or that the planet will travel almost 30,000 light-years and fall into the black hole at the center of the Milky Way galaxy — were also dismissed. (A light-year is the distance light travels in one year, or about 6 trillion miles, or 10 trillion km.)


One popular rumor that the planet will undergo a complete blackout from Dec. 23 to 25 earned a "What?" and blank looks from the panel of scientists.

Ultimately, concerns about Earth's fate would be better focused on slow-acting problems such as climate change rather than some sort of cosmic catastrophe, said Andrew Fraknoi, an astronomer at Foothill College in California.

Mitzi Adams, a heliophysicist at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center, agreed.

"The greatest threat to Earth in 2012, at the end of this year and in the future, is just from the human race itself," Adams said.
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World Environment Day is being observed all over the world today as it is every year on June 5th. The purpose of this day is to create a public awareness among people for the global environmental concerns. It's objective is to raise global awareness among the everyday people to take positive environmental action to reduce the degradation of environment. It was founded in 1973 by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).


World Environment Day 2012 will celebrate its 40th anniversary of the event this year. It was first established by the UN General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. This year's theme for World Environment Day is: Green Economy: Does it include you? The host for World Environment Day 2012 is the country of Brazil.


The United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of environmental concerns and Earth's deterioration due to progressive climate change. It does this by using World Environment Day as a tool to bring awareness and to motivate people to save the environment. It has become very important to stimulate and support public expenditure, policy reforms and regulation changes.

Because of continuous deterioration in the environment, which has led to many major environmental concerns such as unexpected climatic conditions and climate change, melting of glaciers, increasing greenhouse effect, loss of flora and flora it was deemed necessary to establish a joint initiative to control the ongoing imbalance in the environment.

It is estimated that it now takes a year and a half to regenerate the renewable resources that humans use in one year. The prediction is that by 2030 it will take the equivalent of two planets to meet resource demand if something isn't done about it.

Two important factors militate against something that is clearly vital to the future of our planet.

The first is the enormous amount of time that it takes for individual countries to ratify agreements that have been made by world leaders at important international conferences. Strong words are all very fine, but what the world needs is action.

Secondly, human lifestyle and its associated consequences, impacts on the planet more quickly than the actions that are being taken to protect it. When action does take place, it is often not swift enough to have any significant effect.

There has never been a more challenging time for our environment. Time now really is running out and this fact can no longer be ignored.

The places that will get the best show, besides the middle of the ocean, include western North America, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan. In most parts of the United States, the eclipse will happen in the predawn hours, and the moon will set before the event ends.

According to NASA’s predictions, the eclipse will begin at 8:48 a.m. GMT (4:48 a.m. EDT, 1:48 PDT) on June 4 and will end several hours later at 1:18 p.m. GMT (9:18 a.m. EDT, 6:18 a.m. PDT).

At first, it won’t be that noticeable—just a vague gray shadow that gradually appears on the full moon’s surface. This is the Earth’s penumbra, or the fuzzy edge of its shadow. But at 10 a.m. GMT (6 a.m. EDT, 3 a.m. PDT), the Earth’s umbra, or full shadow, will touch the edge of the moon.

The shadow will appear to take a black bite out of the moon over the next two hours, but it won’t be that big. Even at the height of the eclipse, less than half the moon’s surface will be shaded.

This event is the counterpart of the solar eclipse that crossed the Pacific in May. Every eclipse occurs two weeks from another eclipse; that is, a lunar eclipse must occur two weeks before or after a solar eclipse. A lunar eclipse can only happen on the full moon, when the sun and moon are on opposite sides of the Earth.

Lunar eclipses can be seen easily with the naked eye, or you can use binoculars for a closer look.

This is the first of two lunar eclipses this year. The second one will be a barely noticeable penumbral eclipse in November.
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Supermoon Saturday has come and gone. But supermoon photos are still here for those who missed seeing the dazzling lunar display in person and those who simply want to see how things looked elsewhere in the world. No matter which part of the planet the photos came from, they look pretty dramatic.

The supermoon was at its most super at 11:34 p.m. EDT, when the moon was about 221,802 miles away from Earth, the Associated Press reported. That's about 15,300 miles closer than average, making the moon appear about 14 percent bigger than it would appear if it were at its farthest distance during its elliptical orbit.

Some people were too busy indoors to see the supermoon. And in some areas, weather got in the way.

"Clouds are more scattered, but still obstructing views in some areas," the Washington Post reported in an 11:10 p.m. blog post.

The occurrence of the Supermoon, up to 30 percent brighter and appearing 14 percent bigger than other moons, is Saturday, May 5 at 11:54 p.m. eastern time. It happens as the moon reaches full phase and, at around the same time, makes its closest approach to Earth.

This post contains a compilation of Supermoon reader photos and international photos. Enjoy
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The Lyrid meteor shower amazed some skywatchers around the world with bright celestial fireworks this weekend, thanks in part to the lack of a bright moon.

The annual April "shooting star" display hit its peak in the wee hours of Sunday (April 22) while the moon was in its dark, new phase, offering observers with clear weather a better chance to spot the Lyrid meteor shower without the interference of bright moonlight.

"Clear skies, no moon, a bit chilly, but otherwise perfect. I saw two meteors shortly after sunset," photographer Bill Allen of Ralph, Saskatchewan in Canada told SPACE.com in an email.

The Lyrid meteor shower has been observed by humans for more than 2,600 years and occurs each year in mid-April when the Earth passes through a stream of dust left behind by the comet Thatcher (C/1861 G1). The comet dust can reach speeds of up to 110,000 mph (177,027 kph) as it slams into Earth's atmosphere, causing it to ignite as dazzling meteors.

NASA scientists predicted an impressive Lyrid meteor display this year because of the shower's timing coincided with the new moon. A confluence of two other events also enhanced the meteor shower for NASA. (Source)

Booming Fireball

A fireball streaks across the sky north of Reno, Nevada, in a picture taken Sunday morning by local resident Lisa Warren.

Part of the 2012 Lyrid meteor shower, which peaked this past weekend, the bright object and its resulting sonic boom surprised many in Nevada and California, according to Space.com.

"There was this light streaking across the sky. I just started snapping pictures and managed to get three frames as it was exploding. It was so bright, we were seeing spots after. I just thought, 'I can't believe I got three pictures of that,'" Warren told the Reno Gazette-Journal.

Fireballs are rare, unusually particularly bright meteors. When they do occur, they make "quite a spectacular sight for observers," said Raminder Singh Samra, a resident astronomer at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver, Canada.

For stargazers, the 2012 Lyrid meteor shower was one of the best sky shows in years, peaking as it did on a moonless night.


Oregon Visitor

A Lyrid meteor, or shooting star, darts above a barn in rural Oregon on Saturday.
"Typical hourly rates for the Lyrids can run between 10 and 20 meteors," Samra said. "However, rates as high as a hundred meteors per hour are not uncommon."


Double Feature

Streaking over "a persistent glowing arc low on the horizon," a Lyrid meteor enlivens an aurora over Marquette, Michigan, in the predawn hours of Sunday, according to photographer Shawn Malone, writing on Spaceweather.com.
As with most other annual meteor showers, the Lyrids are thought to be caused by sand grain-size debris left over from a passing comet.
When a comet gets close to the sun, its ices vaporize, releasing dust grains and sometimes small lumps of rock that settle into orbit around the sun.


Lucky Break

For most of Saturday night, clouds hid the Lyrid meteor shower from Yuichi Takasaka in Lumby, Canada. But "luckily it went clear after a while and we could see some Lyrids and also very faint auroras on the northern horizon!" Takasaka wrote to the World at Night (TWAN) website for night-sky photographers.
The Lyrids are thought to originate from comet Thatcher, whose 416-year orbit is nearly perpendicular to the plane of the solar system. That means the comet's debris trail doesn't experience many gravitational disturbances from planets, asteroids, and other comets.
Astronomers believe this stable stream of debris may be the reason the Lyrids have been a reliable sky show for centuries.


Late, Late Show

Like a shining arrow aimed at Stagecoach, Colorado, a Lyrid meteor seemingly streaks away from the bright star Vega in a 30-second exposure taken in the wee hours of Sunday.
The Lyrids appear to radiate from Vega, which makes them relatively easy to spot. "Vega can be spotted in even the heaviest of light-polluted cities," astronomer Samra said.


Into the Mist

A lyrid meteor flashes over an acid green auroral cloud layer in Lumby, Canada, Saturday night.
"Like clockwork every year in April, the Earth passes through the particle stream of [comet Thatcher], which last approached the sun in 1861," Samra said.
"These particles hit our atmosphere while traveling at high speeds and burn up, leaving behind streaks of light"-what we see as meteors.


Tasty

A Lyrid meteor makes cuts through the watermelon hues of an aurora over Culdaff Beach in Ireland early Sunday.
Auroras occur when large numbers of charged particles from the sun encounter Earth's magnetic shield. Most of these particles get corralled toward the Poles, where they slam into atmospheric gases such as nitrogen and oxygen, releasing energy visible as colored light.

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Sunday, April 22 will mark Earth Day worldwide. It is now an event that is in its 42nd year and is observed in 175 countries. The original grass-roots environmental action of Earth Day helped spur the Clean Water Act and Clean Air Act in the United States.

Earth Day isn't about tree-hugging and fish-kissing anymore, it's about changing the way we live. For example if the federal government invested $5 billion a year over 10 years to 'greening' our housing stock it could deliver huge benefits across the board: 25-40 percent energy savings in up to 25 million residential units, up to 50 million tons of carbon dioxide emissions avoided and hundreds of thousands of green jobs created annually when fully implemented.

Sunday is a day of celebrations of where we have been and where we are going in order to sustain the world for future generations to come. Below is a short recap of how Earth Day actually came about.

How the First Earth Day Came About

By Senator Gaylord Nelson, Founder of Earth Day

What was the purpose of Earth Day? How did it start? These are the questions I am most frequently asked.

Actually, the idea for Earth Day evolved over a period of seven years starting in 1962. For several years, it had been troubling me that the state of our environment was simply a non-issue in the politics of the country. Finally, in November 1962, an idea occurred to me that was, I thought, a virtual cinch to put the environment into the political "limelight" once and for all. The idea was to persuade President Kennedy to give visibility to this issue by going on a national conservation tour. I flew to Washington to discuss the proposal with Attorney General Robert Kennedy, who liked the idea. So did the President. The President began his five-day, eleven-state conservation tour in September 1963. For many reasons the tour did not succeed in putting the issue onto the national political agenda. However, it was the germ of the idea that ultimately flowered into Earth Day.

I continued to speak on environmental issues to a variety of audiences in some twenty-five states. All across the country, evidence of environmental degradation was appearing everywhere, and everyone noticed except the political establishment. The environmental issue simply was not to be found on the nation's political agenda. The people were concerned, but the politicians were not.

After President Kennedy's tour, I still hoped for some idea that would thrust the environment into the political mainstream. Six years would pass before the idea that became Earth Day occurred to me while on a conservation speaking tour out West in the summer of 1969. At the time, anti-Vietnam War demonstrations, called "teach-ins," had spread to college campuses all across the nation. Suddenly, the idea occurred to me - why not organize a huge grassroots protest over what was happening to our environment?

I was satisfied that if we could tap into the environmental concerns of the general public and infuse the student anti-war energy into the environmental cause, we could generate a demonstration that would force this issue onto the political agenda. It was a big gamble, but worth a try.

At a conference in Seattle in September 1969, I announced that in the spring of 1970 there would be a nationwide grassroots demonstration on behalf of the environment and invited everyone to participate. The wire services carried the story from coast to coast. The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters. Telegrams, letters, and telephone inquiries poured in from all across the country. The American people finally had a forum to express its concern about what was happening to the land, rivers, lakes, and air - and they did so with spectacular exuberance. For the next four months, two members of my Senate staff, Linda Billings and John Heritage, managed Earth Day affairs out of my Senate office.

Five months before Earth Day, on Sunday, November 30, 1969, The New York Times carried a lengthy article by Gladwin Hill reporting on the astonishing proliferation of environmental events:

"Rising concern about the environmental crisis is sweeping the nation's campuses with an intensity that may be on its way to eclipsing student discontent over the war in Vietnam...a national day of observance of environmental problems...is being planned for next spring...when a nationwide environmental 'teach-in'...coordinated from the office of Senator Gaylord Nelson is planned...."

It was obvious that we were headed for a spectacular success on Earth Day. It was also obvious that grassroots activities had ballooned beyond the capacity of my U.S. Senate office staff to keep up with the telephone calls, paper work, inquiries, etc. In mid-January, three months before Earth Day, John Gardner, Founder of Common Cause, provided temporary space for a Washington, D.C. headquarters. I staffed the office with college students and selected Denis Hayes as coordinator of activities.

Earth Day worked because of the spontaneous response at the grassroots level. We had neither the time nor resources to organize 20 million demonstrators and the thousands of schools and local communities that participated. That was the remarkable thing about Earth Day. It organized itself.

Please watch the video below which is from a PBS series offering a low-key but encompassing explanation of climate change and lays out common-sense strategies for addressing it.

Watch Energy Quest USA Preview on PBS. See more from EARTH: The Operators Manual.