If you’re reading this and asteroids are raining down outside or the Earth is about to implode, well, NASA has some explaining to do. But as of right now, NASA is so sure that the world is not going to end today that it has posted a video on YouTube to be viewed on Saturday, titled “Why the World Didn’t End Yesterday.”
Pretty cocky, huh?
Dec. 21 is the day some people think the Mayans predicted the world would end, based on a calendar that ends on that day—or rather, restarts. NASA has been shooting down rumors for months about the event, and this YouTube video is its latest effort to do that. In the four-minute clip, scientists give their case for why the world isn’t over. For example, even if the calendar ends, there’s no evidence that the Mayans believed 2012 would be the end of the world. It also points out that there are no asteroids or rogue planets out to get us, because if there were, we would have seen them by now.
It appears that NASA has gotten so many questions about the supposed “end of the world” that it set up a separate page on its website to address people’s concerns: www.nasa.gov/2012.
According to the L.A. Times, it’s all an effort by NASA to set the record straight. Spokesman Dwayne Brown said the agency has been ready for a few years, knowing that Dec. 21 might stir a few people up.
“We’re doing all that we can do to let the world know that as far as NASA and science goes, Dec. 21 will be another day,” he told the Times. “It’s been a very, very busy week.”
Photo via NASA/YouTube