GRAIN OF SALT, THE MAYAN CALENDAR:Welcome 2012!

 

 

GRAIN OF SALT, THE MAYAN CALENDAR

Scientists say Earth is undergoing true polar wander Posted on October 2, 2012 by The Extinction Protocol October 2, 2012 – EARTH - True polar wander is a geophysical theory, a way of thinking about Earth processes that might happen and that these scientists believe do happen. The theory suggests that if an object of sufficient weight on Earth – for example, a supersized volcano or other weighty land mass – formed far from Earth’s equator, the force of Earth’s rotation would gradually pull the object away from the axis around which Earth spins. A supersized volcano far from Earth’s equator would create an imbalance, in other words. As explained at Princeton.edu: If the volcanoes, land and other masses that exist within the spinning Earth ever became sufficiently imbalanced, the planet would tilt and rotate itself until this extra weight was relocated to a point along the equator. That’s the theory of true polar wander. It would cause a movement of Earth’s land masses, but for a different reason than the reason the continents drift in the theory of plate tectonics (formerly called “continental drift”). In the theory of plate tectonics, the continents drift because Earth’s the layer of Earth underlying our planet’s crust (called the mantle) is convective. That is, it circulates, slowly – like water about to boil. In true polar wander, on the other hand, a similar-seeming movement of land masses on Earth’s crust happens in order to correct an imbalance of weight with respect to Earth’s spin. Scientists’ understanding of true polar wander overlaps with their understanding of plate tectonics in various ways. That’s understandable, since it’s all the same Earth. Scientists delving into true polar wander want to know when, in which direction, and at what rate the Earth’s solid exterior might be rotating due to true polar wander. To sort it out, they say, you would need a stable frame of reference to which observations of relative motion might be compared. Doubrovine and his team say they found one: volcanic hotspots. Oceanic hotspots form an island chain. As land plates drift, a successive of volcanoes form over the hotspot. In geology, hotspots are volcanic regions fed by Earth’s underlying mantle. For example, the Hawaiian Islands are believed to have formed over a hotspot in the mantle. The hotspot created a volcano, but then – as that land plate drifted over time, as described by the theory of plate tectonics – the volcano drifted, too, and was eventually cut off from the hotspot. Gradually, another volcano begins to form over the hotspot, right next to the first one. And then it moves on … and another one forms … and so on … and so on. Earth’s crust produces first one, then another volcano over the hotspot until a long chain of volcanoes forms, such as in Hawaii. Hotspots have long been used to understand the motion of tectonic plates. Doubrovine and colleagues went a step further in order to understand true polar wander. Instead of treating the hot spots as static – frozen in place at one spot above Earth’s mantle – their computer model let the hotspots’ positions drift slowly. According to these scientists, this drifting is what produced a model of a stable reference frame, which in turn let them draw conclusions about true polar wander. They say their model does a good job of matching observations of real hotspot tracks on Earth – the path drawn by each hotspot’s island chain – which gives them confidence their results about true polar wander are accurate. The Mayans reveal their darkest mysteries: New excavation reveals secrets of their calendar - including black-clad figures and symbols never seen before   A vast city built by the ancient Mayan civilisation and discovered nearly a century ago in modern day Guatemala is finally starting to yield its secrets - including a hint that apocalyptic predictions around the 'end' of the Mayan Calendar may be wrong. Excavating for the first time in the sprawling complex of Xultzn in Guatemala's Peten region, archaeologists have uncovered a structure that contains what appears to be a work space for the town's scribe. Its walls are adorned with unique paintings - one depicting a line-up of men in black uniforms, and  hundreds of scrawled numbers - many calculations relating to the Mayan calendar, and stretching up to 7,000 years into the future. Scroll down for video: The painted figure of a man - possibly a scribe - is illuminated in the doorway of the Mayan dwelling, which holds symbols never seen before Angelyn Bass cleans and stabilizes the surface of a wall of a Maya house that dates to the 9th century A.D. A mysterious figure is shown painted on the wall in the foreground Four long numbers on the north wall of the ruined house relate to the Maya calendar and computations about the moon, sun and possibly Venus and Mars; the dates may stretch some 7,000 years into the future. These are the first calculations Maya archaeologists have found that seem to tabulate all of these cycles in this way Mayan temples in Guatemala: Researchers have found walls adorned with unique paintings - one depicting a line-up of men in black uniforms, and hundreds of scrawled numbers - many calculations relating to the Mayan calendar Never-before-seen artwork - the first to be found on walls of a Maya house - adorn the dwelling in the ruined city of Xultún The Mayan sites in Guatemala have been investigated by scientists since the Seventies The excavations, which were funded by National Geographic, have already revealed details about the Mayan calendar and the lives of the inhabitants which were previously unknown. One wall of the structure, thought to be a house, is covered with tiny, millimetre-thick, red and black glyphs unlike any seen before at other Mayan sites. Some appear to represent the various calendrical cycles charted by the Mayans - the 260-day ceremonial calendar, the 365-day solar calendar, the 584-day cycle of the planet Venus and the 780-day cycle of Mars. Four long numbers on the north wall of the ruined house relate to the Maya calendar and computations about the moon, sun and possibly Venus and Mars; the dates may stretch some 7,000 years into the future. ‘Why would they go into those numbers if the world is going to come to an end this year?’ observed Anthony Aveni of Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., an expert on Mayan astronomy. ‘You could say a number that big at least suggests that time marches on.’ These are the first calculations Maya archaeologists have found that seem to tabulate all of these cycles in this way. Although they all involve common multiples of key calendrical and astronomical cycles, the exact significance of these particular spans of time is not known. Archaeologist William Saturno, of Boston University in the United States who led the exploration and excavation, said: ‘For the first time we get to see what may be actual records kept by a scribe, whose job was to be official record keeper.   ‘It's like an episode of TV's 'Big Bang Theory,' a geek math problem and they're painting it on the wall. They seem to be using it like a blackboard.’ The scientists say that despite popular belief, there is no sign that the Mayan calendar - or the world - was to end in the year 2012, just one of its calendar cycles. Anthony Aveni, professor of astronomy and anthropology at Colgate University, said: ‘It's like the odometer of a car, with the Maya calendar rolling over from the 120,000s to 130,000. ‘The car gets a step closer to the junkyard as the numbers turn over; the Maya just start over.’ Archaeologist William Saturno of Boston University carefully uncovers art and writings left by the Maya some 1,200 years ago DO THE MAYANS PREDICT THE WORLD WILL END IN 2012? Inscriptions on Mayan tablets found in temples such as Tortuguero refer to 'the end' - and many internet conspiracy theories have predicted our world will be swallowed by a black hole, hit by an asteroid or devoured by ancient gods. But many ethnic Mayans dismiss the apocalyptic predictions as largely a Western idea. Rather than the end of time itself, the inscriptions refer to the start of a new era. The 'apocalypse' refers to the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C. The paintings represent the first Maya art to be found on the walls of a house. The walls reveal the oldest known astronomical tables from the Maya. Scientists already knew they must have been keeping such records at that time, but until now the oldest known examples dated from about 600 years later. Astronomical records were key to the Mayan calendar, which has gotten some attention recently because of doomsday warnings that it predicts the end of the world this December. Experts say it makes no such prediction. The new finding provides a bit of backup: The calculations include a time span longer than 6,000 years that could extend well beyond 2012. Aveni, along with William Saturno of Boston University and others, report the discovery in Friday's issue of the journal Science. The room, a bit bigger than 6-feet square, is part of a large complex of Mayan ruins in the rain forest at Xultun in northeastern Guatemala. The walls also contain portraits of a seated king and some other figures, but it's clear those have no connection to the astronomical writings, the scientists said. One wall contains a calendar based on phases of the moon, covering about 13 years. The researchers said they think it might have been used to keep track of which deity was overseeing the moon at particular times. Aveni said it would allow scribes to predict the appearance of a full moon years in advance, for example. Such record-keeping was key to Mayan astrology and rituals, and maybe would be used to advise the king on when to go to war or how good this year's crops would be, he said. ‘`What you have here is astronomy driven by religion,’ he said. On an adjacent wall are numbers indicating four time spans from roughly 935 to 6,700 years. It's not clear what they represent, but maybe the scribes were doing calculations that combined observations from important astronomical events like the movements of Mars, Venus and the moon, the researchers said. Why bother to do that? Maybe the scribes were ‘geeks ... who just got carried away with doing these kinds of computations and calculations, and probably did them far beyond the needs of ordinary society,’ Aveni suggested. Experts unconnected with the discovery said it was a significant advance. ‘It's really a wonderful surprise,’ said Simon Martin, co-curator of an exhibit about the Mayan calendar at the University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. While the results of the scribes' work were known from carvings on monuments, ‘we've never really been able to identify a working space, or how they actually went about things,’ Martin said. The new work gives insight into that, he said, and the fact the room had a stone roof rather than thatching supports previous indications that the scribes enjoyed a high social standing. ‘It's a very important discovery. We're only getting a glimpse of it’ in the published paper, said John B. Carlson, director of the Center for Archaeoastronomy in College Park, Md. ‘This is an intriguing start for this discovery.’ Xultzn, a 12 square mile site where tens of thousands once lived, was first discovered about 100 years ago by Guatemalan workers and roughly mapped in the 1920s by Sylvanus Morley, who named the site ‘Xultzn’ - ‘end stone.’ Scientists from Harvard University mapped more of the site in the 1970s. The house discovered by Prof Saturno's team was numbered 54 of 56 structures counted and mapped at that time. Thousands at Xultzn remain uncounted. The team's excavations reveal that monumental construction at Xultzn began in the first centuries B.C. The site thrived until the end of the Classic Maya period; the site's last carved monument dates to around 890 A.D. Prof Saturno said: ‘It's weird that the Xultzn finds exist at all. Such writings and artwork on walls don't preserve well in the Maya lowlands, especially in a house buried only a meter below the surface.’ Prof Aveni added: ‘The most exciting point is that we now see that the Maya were making such computations hundreds of years - and in places other than books - before they recorded them in the Codices.’ The findings were reported in National Geographic magazine and in the journal Science.   The Great Wall of China crumbles and thousands of screaming tourists plummet to their deaths. Soon the horrors reach British shores. A massive earthquake sends Big Ben crashing to the ground and destroys the newly-built Olympic stadium, great surges in our rivers drown millions up and down the country, and plunging asteroids turn our towns and cities into smoking ruins. Those who survive the initial onslaught flee in terror, but to run is futile for this is the ultimate catastrophe — the end of the world, as predicted by the Hollywood disaster movie 2012, which opens next month. Domesday: Scenes from Roland Emmerich's new disaster movie, 2012 Starring John Cusack and Thandie Newton, 2012 is directed by Roland Emmerich, whose previous films, Independence Day and The Day After Tomorrow, have conjured up similarly apocalyptic visions — with Earth invaded by hostile aliens, or threatened with the sudden onset of a new Ice Age. While these have been dismissed as entertaining bunkum, Emmerich’s latest effort is causing rather more of a stir. Its plot revolves around a real-life prediction that the world will end on December 21, 2012, and many doomsayers claim there is evidence to suggest that this prophecy will come true. In America, they include Richard Heene, the Colorado father who created a worldwide frenzy when he claimed, falsely, that his six-year-old son Falcon had floated off in a home-made helium balloon shaped like a UFO. It has since emerged that Heene planned to build an underground bunker to protect his family in the event of the sun exploding in 2012. Whether his strange craft was part of his escape plan has yet to be established, but Heene is far from alone in his fear of this imminent Armageddon.   Far-fetched though it sounds, rumours about what might happen in 2012 are fuelling so much hysteria that NASA has had to intervene to allay public fears. ‘Two years ago, I got a question each week about 2012,’ says David Morrison, director of NASA’s Lunar Science Institute in California. ‘Now I’m getting a dozen a day and people are really worried. ‘A couple of teenagers over here have told me they were contemplating suicide rather than facing the end of the world and I’ve also had quite a few questions from England. ‘One of the saddest inquiries was from a woman who said her only friend was her cat. ‘She wanted to know if she should have him put down before 2012 so that he wouldn’t suffer.’ Morrison has posted a list of 20 questions and answers on NASA’s website to address people’s worries. But fascination with our apparently looming annihilation continues to grow — with more than 175 books about it advertised on the Amazon website alone, and some ghoulish entrepreneurs even offering 2012 survival kits. So, what has led to such alarm about 21/12/2012, a date causing panic not seen since fears about the Millennium computer bug in the year 2000? Worrying prediction or hokum? Another scene from 2012 Is it all nonsense or could we really be only three years away from Doomsday? This belief in our imminent demise is based on a calendar produced by the ancient Mayan civilisation, which flourished in the steamy rainforests of central America for nearly 2,000 years until its mysterious collapse around AD900. Today its abandoned temples and palaces have been engulfed by the lush green vegetation of the jungle, their rooms inhabited only by wild animals and birds — yet this was once one of the sophisticated societies of its day. Without wheels or metal tools to help them, the Mayans built many splendid stone buildings, including intricately designed observatories in which they developed a highly advanced understanding of astronomy. Scanning the heavens for many centuries and noting any association between the movement of the celestial bodies and events on Earth, they produced complicated almanacs full of horrifying imagery. The rising of the planet Venus in the morning, a sign believed to augur Mayan success in war, was represented by pictures of decapitated heads, while the lunar eclipses were symbolised by drawings of a dead goddess with a rope around her neck. Eclipses were thought to be a time of great danger for women, and a period when many children would be born deaf or blind. For all their gruesome illustrations, these almanacs were remarkably accurate in their astronomical calculations. With neither telescopes nor other equipment at their disposal, the Mayans managed to calculate that a lunar month — the period between successive new moons — lasted 29.5305 days, just 34 seconds away from what we now know to be its actual length. They also accurately forecast the movements of planets including Jupiter and Mars, and the occurrence of both solar and lunar eclipses for many centuries to come. Given these very precise predictions, Doomsday theorists are alarmed that the Mayan ‘Long Count’ Calendar, as it is known, appears to end abruptly on a date they recorded as 13.0.0.0. On the Gregorian calendar which we use today, this corresponds to December 21, 2012. The only clue as to what the Mayans thought might happen on that day comes from an ancient stone tablet, discovered during roadworks in Mexico back in the Sixties. Carved upon it are hieroglyphics that refer to the year 2012 and an event that will involve Bolon Yokte, the Mayan god of war and creation. Weathering and a crack in the stone have made the last part of the inscription illegible, but Mexican archaeologists have interpreted it as saying: ‘He will descend from the sky.’ Might this be a warning of impending divine wrath? Those who believe so include journalist Michael Drosnin, author of the best-selling book The Bible Code, which describes the work of three Israeli mathematicians who analysed the Book of Genesis using a computer. Apocalypse: A wave of catastrophe hits the earth in the film They supposedly discovered coded references to the names of 66 legendary rabbis who lived and died many centuries after Genesis was written. The text was also said to contain hidden details of the rabbis’ birth and death dates, and of the towns and cities in which they would live. Continuing this analysis, Drosnin claimed to have found encoded descriptions of the Earth being pounded by comets in the year 2012. Others have suggested that, on the day in question, the winter solstice, the sun will be in exact alignment with the centre of our galaxy. According to Lawrence Joseph, author of a book called Apocalypse 2012, unspecified gravitational and energy forces may be acting on us from the centre of the milky way — and, if disrupted, he speculates they would throw our bodies and our planet out of kilter, resulting in catastrophe. He compares this to the way in which even a momentary disruption of electrical power can cause the clocks on DVD players and microwaves to blink meaninglessly. But this theory is debunked by David Morrison of NASA. ‘The galactic centre is very far away, approximately 30,000 light years, so it has negligible effects on the solar system or the Earth,’ he says. ‘In fact, the sun goes in the general direction of the galaxy’s centre every December and nothing at all happens.’ Morrison also refutes a popular internet theory that worldwide devastation will be caused by Earth’s magnetic polarity suddenly changing and throwing its direction of rotation into reverse. ‘The Earth has been rotating in the same direction for the past four billion years,’ he says. ‘The magnetic polarity does change every few hundred thousand years and the last time was about 400,000 years ago, but there is no evidence to suggest that it will happen again any time soon. ‘Even if it does, it has no bearing on the direction in which the Earth spins, and there is no reason to think it will do any other harm.’ Repetition of doom? The 2012 date is based on the sudden demise of the Mayans, whose skulls are seen above One idea with at least some credibility is that the Earth will one day be hit by a large extra-terrestrial object. But David Morrison dismisses the idea put forward in the film that this will be a mysterious planet known as Nibiru — long the subject of speculation among the gloom-mongers of cyberspace. Niburu was supposedly first identified by the Sumerian people, who lived 5,000 years ago in what is now southern Iraq and it is said to be heading towards Earth at an alarming rate. Astronomers insist that there is no such planet but, much to Morrison’s frustration, this only increases suspicion that governments worldwide are concealing its existence to avoid global panic. ‘The simple laws of planetary motion tell you that if this thing really was only three years away from hitting Earth, it would be the brightest thing in the sky apart from the sun and the moon,’ he says. ‘It would have been tracked by thousands of amateur and professional astronomers all over the world. You just can’t hide a planet.’ Fictitious though planet Nibiru is, the Earth has always been subject to strikes by comets and asteroids. But to do any real damage, an object would have to be more than a mile wide. Such big hits are rare and the last was 65 million years ago, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Searches of the cosmos for potential collisions up to 100 years into the future by NASA’s Near Earth Object Program led to them reporting that there are no serious threats in the offing and, even if a sizeable projectile did hit us, it might not wipe us out altogether. ‘There would be global firestorms and severe acid rain,’ says Don Yeomans, manager of the programme. ‘But all of these effects are relatively short-term, so the most adaptable species, like cockroaches and humans, would be likely to survive.’ According to Bill McGuire, Professor of Geophysical and Climate Hazards at University College London, we are 12 times more likely to experience the explosion of a super-volcano — defined as an eruption that expels 1,000 cubic kilometres or more of debris, enough to obliterate an area the size of Yorkshire. The site that currently gives most cause for concern is Yellowstone Volcano in the American state of Wyoming, which continues to rumble ominously and could explode with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima bombs and plunge the planet into a nuclear winter. ‘There would be great clouds of sulphur gas that would mix with the water in the atmosphere to form a veil over the Earth, cutting out sunlight and dramatically cooling the Earth’s surface,’ says Professor McGuire. ‘Plants would be unable to photosynthesise and there would be widespread crop failures, famine and starvation. ‘A super-volcano probably wouldn’t kill all of us, but there would be a devastating impact on our global economy and society.’ One thing the scientists agree upon is that life on Earth will one day come to an end. The constantly diminishing supplies of hydrogen in the sun, as in all ageing stars, will cause it to swell up and become what astronomers call a ‘red giant’. It will then engulf us before collapsing in on itself and becoming a ‘white dwarf’. Chichen-Itza, Mexico: The Mayans, who built this pyramid, prospered for 2,000 years until their ‘Long Count’ Calendar abruptly ended on the date 13.0.0.0., which in our modern system corresponds to December 21, 2012 The good news is that this is unlikely to happen for another four billion years or so. And since none of the other aforementioned fates is likely to befall us for a very long time to come, if at all, we are probably safe to get on with our Christmas plans for 2012. We cannot be too complacent about mankind’s longevity, however. Quite apart from the much trumpeted dangers of global warming, some experts suggest that the Earth’s magnetic field — which is crucial for deflecting solar radiation and channelling it into belts that harmlessly circle the planet — will diminish to the point where it can no longer protect us from the sun’s rays. This could lead to an epidemic of cancers and a major disruption of the food chain. Compasses would stop working, animals would be unable to find their way back to breeding grounds, and the weather would become less predictable. The Earth would become unstable, unleashing a series of natural disasters. Such a lingering end to humanity’s time on Earth might not be the stuff of Hollywood blockbusters, but it lends a chilling resonance to the final lines of TS Eliot’s famous poem The Hollow Men, penned in the aftermath of World War One. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. This is the way the world ends. Not with a bang but a whimper. Second inscription that confirms date of 'end' of Mayan calendar 'End date' marks end of 5,125-year-old cycle of time 1,300 year old carvings described as biggest hieroglyphic find in decades Inscription found on blocks abandoned by looters   Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane's Middle American Research Institute, examines hieroglyphics at the La Corona dig site in Guatemala Archaeologists have found carvings in a stone staircase at the La Corona dig site in Guatemala which confirm the ‘end date’ of the Maya calendar, December 21, 2012. It is only the second known inscription which confirms this 'end date'. New Age sects around the world have interpreted this as a potential doomsday event - with sales of blast shelters rising in the U.S. and believers taking refuge in a village in France. The Mayan tablets are the subject of wild internet conspiracy theories, with predictions our world will be swallowed by a black hole, hit by an asteroid or devoured by ancient gods. The 1,300-year-old inscription is described as one of the most significant hieroglyphic finds in decades. Most of the inscription, carved into a stone abandoned by looters, deals with political history - but there is a reference to 'the end' in a passage about a king's return. ‘This was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region and this king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in 2012,’ says David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin, who led a dig at the site. But many ethnic Mayans dismiss the apocalyptic predictions as largely a Western idea. Rather than the end of time itself, the inscriptions refer to the start of a new era. The 'apocalypse' refers to the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C. 'The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth,' says Nasa, 'These fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012.' ‘This text talks about ancient political history rather than prophecy,’ says Marcello A. Canuto, dco-director of the excavations at La Corona. A newly discovered Mayan tablet reveals the 'end date' for the Mayan Calendar - it's only the second artifact to specify the date The carved blocks were found at the La Corona dig site in Guatemala The hieroglyphics were found on blocks abandoned by looters at the La Corona dig site Since 2008, Canuto and Tomás Barrientos of the Universidad del Valle de Guatemala have directed excavations at La Corona, a site previously ravaged by looters. ‘Last year, we realized that looters of a particular building had discarded some carved stones because they were too eroded to sell on the antiquities black market,’ said Barrientos, ‘so we knew they found something important, but we also thought they might have missed something.’ The find has been described as the most significant hieroglyphic discovery in decades Marcello A. Canuto, director of Tulane's Middle American Research Institute, examines hieroglyphics at the La Corona dig site in Guatemala DO THE MAYANS PREDICT DOOMSDAY IN 2012? THE CULTS AND THE REALITY Inscriptions on Mayan tablets found in temples such as Tortuguero refer to 'the end' - and many internet conspiracy theories have predicted our world will be swallowed by a black hole, hit by an asteroid or devoured by ancient gods. Cults have gathered in the tiny French village called Bugarach where they hope to survive the apocalypse. Hundreds of books have been published on the subject since the Seventies, predicting Earth's demise at the hands of a mysterious planet Nibiru, or a black hole. 'The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth,' says Nasa, 'These fables were linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012.' But many ethnic Mayans dismiss the apocalyptic predictions as largely a Western idea. Rather than the end of time itself, the inscriptions refer to the start of a new era. The 'apocalypse' refers to the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C. What Canuto and Barrientos found was the longest text ever discovered in Guatemala. Carved on staircase steps, it records 200 years of La Corona history, states David Stuart, director of the Mesoamerica Center at The University of Texas at Austin, who was part of a 1997 expedition that first explored the site. Most of the inscription, carved into a stone abandoned by looters, deals with political history - but there is a reference to 'the end' in a passage about a king's return. While deciphering these new finds in May, Stuart recognized the 2012 reference on a stairway block bearing 56 delicately carved hieroglyphs. It commemorated a royal visit to La Corona in AD 696 by the most powerful Maya ruler of that time, Yuknoom Yich'aak K'ahk' of Calakmul, only a few months after his defeat by long-standing rival Tikal in AD 695. Thought by scholars to have been killed in this battle, this ruler was visiting allies and allaying their fears after his defeat. ‘This was a time of great political turmoil in the Maya region and this king felt compelled to allude to a larger cycle of time that happens to end in 2012,’ says Stuart. So, rather than prophesy, the 2012 reference places this king's troubled reign and accomplishments into a larger cosmological framework. ‘In times of crisis, the ancient Maya used their calendar to promote continuity and stability rather than predict apocalypse,’ says Canuto. Mayan temples in Guatemala: Researchers have found walls adorned with unique paintings - one depicting a line-up of men in black uniforms, and hundreds of scrawled numbers - many calculations relating to the Mayan calendar Mayan carvings at La Corona: The 1,300-year-old inscription is described as one of the most significant hieroglyphic finds in decades   Why the world will NOT end in 2012: Nasa scientist debunks conspiracy theories   Skyscrapers crumble to the ground, fiery meteorites smash into Earth and a Tibetan monk cowers as a massive tidal wave swamps his mountain retreat. It is a vision of the coming apocalypse thrillingly captured in the latest Hollywood blockbuster. But fears that the world is due to end in December 2012 is just a myth fuelled by internet rumour, according to a leading Nasa scientist.   Doomsday? The film 2012 will inflame existing fears about the possible end of the world Dr David Morrison, who runs the space agency's 'Ask an Astrobiologist' service, says he  has received more than a thousand emails from those worried that the world is due to end in 2012. In an article published by the Astronomical Society of the Pacific, Dr Morrison has answered the top 20 questions in an attempt to assuage these fears. According to the theories on the internet, the calendar used by the ancient civilisation of the Mayans is due to come to an end in December 2012. Luckily for conspiracy theorists, this coincides neatly with predictions by an obscure sci-fi author, who wrote about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, that a planet named Nibiru will collide with the Earth on that date.   The Mayan calendar ends in 2012, but Dr Morrison said this did not mean the world would end Fears have been further inflamed by an apocalyptic film called '2012' starring John Cusack, which is out this November. A quick search on Amazon reveals there are 175 books listed that deal with 2012 doomsday. First off Dr Morrison dismisses the possibility that the planet Nibiru even exists. He writes: 'The bottom line is that Nibiru is a myth, with no basis in fact. 'To an astronomer, persistent claims about a planet that is "nearby" but “invisible” are just plain silly.' And Dr Morrison laughs off suggestions that the government has been complicit in hiding its existence from the public. 'Even if they wanted to, the government could not keep Nibiru a secret,' he says. 'If it were real, it would be tracked by thousands of astronomers, amateurs as well a professional. These astronomers are spread all over the world. 'I know the astronomy community, and these scientists would not keep a secret even if ordered to. You just can’t hide a planet on its way to the inner solar system!' He also addresses the concerns of those who worry that the Mayan calendar is due to end in 2012. 'Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use. 'The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012. 'I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31 2009, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year.' He added although many believe prophecies by the sixteenth century seer Nostradamus predict the end of the world in 2012, there is no evidence he has correctly predicted anything. He also tackles the belief circulating on some internet forums that an alignment of planets in our galaxy the Milky Way could in some way disrupt the Earth's gravitational field or reverse the Earth's rotation. 'A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. It has never happened and never will,' he said. He added that although the magnetic polarity of Earth does take place around every 400,000 years scientists don't believe it will take place for another few millennia and there is no evidence it would do any harm. Nasa scientist David Morrison (left) has moved to calm fears that the world will end in 2012, as predicted by sixteenth century seer Nostradamus (right) Publicity for the film '2012' also comes under attack for stirring up fear about the date. Like many Hollywood blockbusters nowadays, '2012' uses a sophisticated PR campaign which incorporates elements of 'viral' marketing. In the trailer for the film, which plays on conspiracy theorists' fears that the truth is being somehow hidden, viewers are directed to a 'faux scientific' website. The website purports to be the home for The Institute for Human Continuity, an entirely fictitious organisation which allows visitors to sign up for a lottery which will decide who will be saved when Armageddon comes. 'The whole 2012 disaster scenario is a hoax, fueled by ads for the Hollywood science-fiction disaster film “2012”,' he says. 'I can only hope that most people are able to distinguish Hollywood film plots from reality.' Dr Morrison noted that a growing interest in outer space has led to a general 'cosmophobia', that is a fear of the cosmos. He said he found people were frequently worried about the sun's magnetic field, solar storms, black holes and a rift in the Milky Way. 'Previously these would have merely been interesting astronomical ideas to explore, but now for many young people (who read misinformation about them on the web) they are objects of dread. They are one of the most spectacular views a human could hope to see - and next year a comet which could outshine the moon is due to fly by the Earth. Comet ISON is visiting the inner solar system and is set to put on spectacular views for the Northern Hemisphere across November and December as it heads towards the sun. It may prove to be brighter than any comet of the last century - visible even in broad daylight - and this may end up being its one and only trip to the solar system, as its trajectory may see it plunge into the sun in a fiery death. Look to the skies next year: Comet ISON could produce a spectacular show when it flies by next year - similar to the 1997 appearance of Hale-Bopp (pictured) How Hale-Bopp looked above Alaska: Next year's comet is predicted to be even more spectacular, and remain in the skies for weeks Spotted in space: Two astronomers from Russia discovered the icy ball, pictured here dimly lit against background stars It is currently moving inwards from beyond Jupiter, and as it approaches the Earth, the 'dirty snowball' could produce a dazzling display, burning brighter than the moon and potentially being visible in broad daylight. The comet, discovered by astronomers using the International Scientific Optical Network telescope in Russia, will pass within two million miles of the sun's surface - making it s 'sun-grazing' comet. It is on a 'parabolic' orbit, which means it probably originated from the outer skirts of the solar system, perhaps from the Oort cloud - a mass of icy debris which lies 50,000 times further from the sun than the Earth does. If comet ISON survives the encounter, it could take thousands - potentially millions - of years before the comet passes back through the inner solar system.   Tourists screamed, others shot hasty videos with their camera phones as the Mayan pyramid rumbled. But no earthquake followed, instead a brilliant beam of light shot skyward into space as awed onlookers gasped, wondering what it meant. Mayan energy beam. Processed image on right shows hidden lightning bolt But the Mayan pyramid of Kukulkan transmitting a raw column of incredible energy into space was just the latest pyramid to do so. Artist's re-creation of what witnesses saw at Bosnian pyramid In 2009 and 2010 the Bosnian pyramid of the sun beamed a pencil thin ray of pure energy towards space. Recently, the Chinese government began closely monitoring the Xianyang pyramid for signs of activity. Last year a team of scientists investigated the pyramid and believe it may have extraterrestrial origins. [Alien Base Found At Chinese Pyramid] Aztec Pyramid of the Moon blasts energy vortex from apex That amazing incident was followed by the vortex blast—witnessed and captured on film—shooting from the apex of the famous Aztec Pyramid of the Moon in Teotihuacan, Mexico. Energy beams, vortexes, whirlwinds of intense force…what does it mean? Where is that energy being directed and why? What activated the mysterious power of these silent sentinels of stone quietly marking the passage of centuries…until something disturbed their slumber? What brought them to life may be something more incredible than the actions of the pyramids: the arrival of an unknown force from the galactic void that's now surrounded much of the solar system. The deadly photon belt NASA and the European Space Agency have been warning the world for two years about the approaching catastrophes that may unfold during 2012 to 2013. Few listened. Astrophysicist Dr. Alexey Dmitriev Now the eminent astrophysicist, Alexey Demetriev ["PLANETOPHYSICAL STATE OF THE EARTH AND LIFE"] claims what is happening is worse—much worse—than NASA and the ESA's warnings. [Claim: NASA Hiding Approaching Doomsday Space Event] Our entire solar system has entered an immense, potentially deadly, interstellar energy cloud. Pyramids reacting to unknown, alien cloud Dr. Demetriev has revealed that both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 probes reported the entire solar system is at risk. Worse, Merav Opher, a NASA Heliophysics Guest Investigator from George Mason University claims this interstellar energy cloud is unstable and turbulent. The Russian scientist further asserts this photonic cloud of energy is exciting the atmospheres of the planets and especially our sun. As this interstellar energy cloud continues to excite and interact with the sun, it causes the sun to become more active, resulting in greater output and instability. The magnetic flux, interaction with the solar magnetosphere and Earth's geomagnetic fields, can cause core mutations, anomalous field vortices, and polar magnetic permutations creating superstorms, wild weather swings, and—most amazing of all—atmospheric and subterranean harmonics capable of being heard all across the planet. Illustration of how pyramids may generate power The pyramids—natural reservoirs of earth energy and advanced capacitors engineered to draw upon the planet's magnetic force field—are releasing and blasting pure energy into the drifting space cloud engulfing our defenseless planetary system. The predicted harmonics have been heard, recorded, and heatedly discussed since the spring of 2011. Recently, some recordings have appeared on Youtube from countries all over the globe posted by puzzled, sometimes frightened people, demanding to know what the sounds are. [Skyquakes: Warnings From Earth's Destabilizing Core] While some are undoubtedly fakes and hoaxes, others are genuine recordings of subterranean and atmospheric harmonics. Professor Dr. Elchin Khalilov discusses the harmonics In a recent interview with Geochange Magazine about the strange earth harmonics, eminent scientist, Professor Dr. Elchin Khalilov, gave this analysis: "[The]…possible cause of these sounds…may lie at the Earth's core. The fact is that the acceleration of the drift of the Earth's north magnetic pole which increased more than fivefold between 1998 and 2003 and is at the same level today points to intensification of energy processes in the Earth's core, since it is processes in the inner and outer core that form the Earth's geomagnetic field. "Meanwhile, as we have already reported, on November 15, 2011 all ATROPATENA geophysical stations which record three-dimensional variations of the Earth's gravitational field almost simultaneously registered a powerful gravitational impulse. The stations are deployed in Istanbul, Kiev, Baku, Islamabad and Yogyakarta, with the first and last one being separated by a distance of about 10,000 km. Such a phenomenon is only possible if the source of this emanation is at the Earth's core level. That huge energy release from the Earth's core at the end of the last year was some kind of a start signal indicating the transition of the Earth's internal energy into a new active phase."[Geochange Magazine] And the harmonics are emanating from the Earth's core as the good professor theorizes. Similar sounds are sometimes heard before great earthquakes strike. This time, however, the sounds are not presaging massive earthquakes, but are being generated by the twisting magnetic field and the pulsing permutations of the spinning Earth's core warping parts of the mantel. Everything's reacting to the arrival of the huge photonic cloud that's invaded our region of the Milky Way Galaxy.          Nasa reveals massive halo of hot gas that envelops our universe The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy. Prediction could also explain the astronomical mystery known as the 'missing bayron problem' It is an astonishing reminder of just how large the universe is. Nasa today revealed this incredible image showing our Milky Way Galaxy is embedded in an enormous halo of hot gas that extends for hundreds of thousands of light years. The estimated mass of the halo is comparable to the mass of all the stars in the galaxy. In a recent study, a team of five astronomers used data from Chandra, the European Space Agency's XMM-Newton space observatory and Japan's Suzaku satellite to set limits on the temperature, extent and mass of the hot gas halo. Chandra observed eight bright X-ray sources located far beyond the galaxy at distances of hundreds of millions of light-years. The data revealed X-rays from these distant sources are absorbed selectively by oxygen ions in the vicinity of the galaxy. The scientists determined the temperature of the absorbing halo is between 1 million and 2.5 million kelvins, or a few hundred times hotter than the surface of the sun. Other studies have shown that the Milky Way and other galaxies are embedded in warm gas with temperatures between 100,000 and 1 million kelvins. Studies have indicated the presence of a hotter gas with a temperature greater than 1 million kelvins. This new research provides evidence the hot gas halo enveloping the Milky Way is much more massive than the warm gas halo. 'We know the gas is around the galaxy, and we know how hot it is,' said Anjali Gupta, lead author of The Astrophysical Journal paper describing the research.

Fireworks light up the London skyline and Big Ben just after midnight on January 1, 2012, in London, England. Thousands of people lined the banks of the River Thames in central London to ring in the New Year with a spectacular fireworks display. (Dan Kitwood/Getty Images) Mayan prediction of world ending in 2012 may be a 'misreading' - it's just the start of a new era, says expert An inscription found in the Mayan temple of Tortuguero make a prediction of an apocalyptic even in 2012 - with some conspiracy theorists predicting the world being swallowed by a black hole, the sun, or just clipped by a passing asteroid. The Mayan inscriptions refer to Bolon Yokte 'descending from the sky' in 2012 - a god associated with war and the underworld. But a German expert, Sven Gronemeyer, says that the whole thing could just be a misreading. The Aztec Mayan Calendar: A well-known tablet predicts an apocalyptic event in 2012 - but rather than doomsday, a German expert says it could simply refer to the start of a new era The tablet on which the inscription was found has a break which makes the end nearly illegible - but even so, the legible parts don't necessarily spell oncoming doomsday. Gronemeyer said his decoding of a Mayan artefact with a reference to a 2012 date denotes a transition to a new era in the Mayan calendar - and not a possible end of the world. The film 2012 predicted a typically understated doomsday scenario with the earth's core overheating: But the entire idea of the world ending in 2012 may be a 'misreading' an expert says Bolon Yokte is a figure also associated with change. Many Mayans also dismiss the apocalyptic predictions as largely a Western idea. Rather than the end of time itself, the inscription refers to the start of a new era. The interpretation of the hieroglyphs by Sven Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia was presented for the first time at the archaeological site of Palenque in southern Mexico. His comments came less than a week after Mexico's archaeology institute acknowledged there was a second reference to the 2012 date in Mayan inscriptions -  touching off another round of talk (and panic) about whether it predicts the end of the world. The prophecy of a war-god 'descending from the sky' in 2012 is largely a Western idea, according to many modern-day Mayans 'The elite had to prepare the land for the return of the god Bolon Yokte - it's a symbolic date, not a great leap for humanity' Mr Gronemeyer has been studying the stone tablet found years ago at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Tabasco. He said the inscription describes the return of mysterious Mayan god Bolon Yokte at the end of a 13th period of 400 years, known as Baktuns, on the equivalent of December 21, 2012. Mayans considered 13 a sacred number. There is nothing apocalyptic in the date, he said. The text was carved about 1,300 years ago. The stone has cracked, which has made the end of the passage almost illegible. Mr Gronemeyer said the inscription refers to the end of a cycle of 5,125 years since the beginning of the Mayan Long Count calendar in 3113 B.C. The fragment was a prophecy of then ruler Bahlam Ajaw, who wanted to plan the passage of the god, Mr Gronemeyer said. 'For the elite of Tortuguero, it was clear they had to prepare the land for the return of the god and for Bahlam Ajaw to be the host of this initiation,' he said. Bolon Yokte, god of creation and war, was to prevail that day in a sanctuary of Tortuguero. 'The date acquired a symbolic value because it is seen as a reflection of the day of creation,' Mr Gronemeyer said. 'It is the passage of a god and not necessarily a great leap for humanity.' Temple of the Inscriptions Ancient Mayan Ruins: The tablet found that makes reference to the year 2012 is partially illegible - which only serves to fuel the conspiracy theories Last week, Mexico's National Institute of Anthropology said a second inscription mentioning the 2012 date is on the carved or moulded face of a brick found at the Comalcalco ruin, near the Tortuguero site. It is being kept at the institute and is not on display. Experts doubt the second inscription is a definite reference to the date cited as the possible end of the world, saying there is no future tense marking like there is in the Tortuguero tablet. The institute has tried to dispel talk of a 2012 apocalypse, the subject of numerous postings and stories on the internet. Its latest step was to arrange a special round table of Mayan experts this week at Palenque, which is where Mr Gronemeyer made his comments.     A couple watches the last rays of sunlight for 2011 at sunset from the waters off Waikiki Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, on December 31, 2011. (Reuters/Jason Reed) #   Russian professor looks for clues to Earth’s future buried in Mayan text   April 23, 2012 –  – Mayan life is described in a sacred book called “Popol Vuh.” Kiril Novoselsky, a Russian professor, said it could be compared to the Bible, “but all information is in allegoric form. There are some interpretations, but I think they are all far from the truth,” he said. All commentaries were either destroyed or written with the hieroglyphic script, which is difficult to read. “Most secrets are still hidden. One of the most popular interpretations is the prophecy about the end of the days in 2012,” Novoselsky said. He mentioned the well-known esoteric researcher Drunvalo Melchisedek, who had discussed this question with Guatemalan priests and found out that the predicted transformation would be a process that would happen gradually—not in two days, but during 200 years. “In their opinion, the year 2012 is a milestone of the old epoch and the beginning of something new, maybe the beginning of a new culture. And they emphasized that this would happen slowly and gradually without cataclysms and earthquakes,” Novoselsky said. “People living in the center of the Mayan civilization haven’t any panic about this prophecy.” He added, “In my opinion, all these prophecies are a chance to think about our behavior, the meaning of life, about how to improve yourself and other people’s life, and how to live in harmony.”   3 A giant dragon lantern is displayed to celebrate the New Year near the border village of Panmunjom (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, at Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, Sunday, January 1, 2012. The year 2012 is celebrated as the year of the dragon on the Chinese lunar calendar. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) #   4 Women use sparklers to draw "2012" for photographers, in front of a house, as they celebrate New Years Eve in Manila, Philippines, on December 31, 2011. (Reuters/Romeo Ranoco) #   5 Confetti drops as a Filipino blows his paper horn as they welcome the New Year at Manila's Rizal Park, Philippines, on Sunday January 1, 2012. More than 200 people have been injured by illegal firecrackers and celebratory gunfire in the Philippines despite a government scare campaign against reckless New Year revelries, officials recently said. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila) #   6 Fireworks explode over the Sydney Harbor Bridge and Opera House during a pyrotechnic show to celebrate the New Year, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Daniel Munoz) #   7 People release balloons as the Tokyo Tower is illuminated to celebrate the New Year at a countdown event at the Zojo-ji Buddhist temple in Tokyo, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Kim Kyung-Hoon) #   8 Young people celebrate New Year's Day at Tokyo's Shibuya district, on January 1, 2012. (Yoshikazu Tsuno/AFP/Getty Images) # 9 Residents watch fireworks displays above the Malaysia's iconic landmarks, the Twin Towers, during the new year celebrations in Kuala Lumpur, on January 1, 2012. (Saeed Khan/AFP/Getty Images) # 10 Colorful light illuminate the Temple of Heaven, the city's historic landmark during a countdown event for new year 2012 on January 1, 2012. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images) # 11 People gather to celebrate the new year 2012 at the illuminated Temple of Heaven, the city's historic landmark in Beijing, on January 1, 2012. (Liu Jin/AFP/Getty Images) # 12 In this December 31, 2011 photo, staff members of He Garden show their homemade glasses in the shape of 2012 in Yangzhou, east China's Jiangsu Province. (AP Photo/Xinhua, Meng Delong) # 13 South Koreans view the burning of Daljips, a wooden hut built on top of a hill, to celebrate the New Year near the border village of Panmunjom (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas since the Korean War, at Imjingak Pavilion in Paju, South Korea, on January 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon) # 14 A Sri Lankan mask traditional dancer performs in Colombo, on December 31, 2011. The ceremony was conducted to ward off bad spirits in the 2012 New Year. (Ishara S. Kodikara/AFP/Getty Images) # 15 Fireworks explode from Taiwan's tallest skyscraper Taipei 101 during New Year celebrations in Taipei, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Shengfa Lin) # 16 Students sit in a formation during their New Year's Day celebrations at a school in the western Indian city of Ahmedabad, on December 31, 2011. (Reuters/Amit Dave) # 17 A man lights an Old Man effigy which symbolizes burning the past and getting ready to start a happy New Year without bad memories of the past in Mumbai, India, on January 1, 2012.(AP Photo/Rafiq Maqbool) # 18 Thousands of people watch fireworks during New Year's Day celebration on Red Square in Moscow, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Denis Sinyakov) # 19 A couple kisses as fireworks explode in the sky over Bucharest, Romania, at midnight, Sunday, January 1, 2012, during street celebrations of the new year. Large crowds gathered downtown Romania's capital taking advantage of the dry weather to attend the celebrations. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda) # 20 Lebanese watch a firework display the New Year's celebrations in downtown Beirut, Lebanon, on January 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein) # 21 Fireworks explode beside Vienna's Giant Ferris Wheel (Wiener Riesenrad) at Prater park during New Year's celebrations in Vienna, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Lisi Niesner) # 22 Fireworks explode over the Quadriga statue atop the Brandenburg Gate on New Year's Eve on January 1, 2012, in Berlin, Germany. According to the media, up to one million people celebrated at the country's biggest New Year's Eve Party. (Andreas Rentz/Getty Images) # 23 A couple kiss as fireworks light the sky during New Year celebrations in Sarajevo, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Dado Ruvic) # 24 New Year's Eve fireworks illuminate the sky over the Dom Tower, on January 01, 2012 in Utrecht, Netherlands. (Jasper Juinen/Getty Images) # 25 People spray champagne as they celebrate the New Year on the Trocadero square in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, early on January 1, 2012. (Miguel Medina/AFP/Getty Images) # 26 A man films fireworks exploding in the sky over the Ebrie lagoon during New Year celebrations in Abidjan, on January 1, 2012. (Sia Kambou/AFP/Getty Images) # 27 A capacity crowd fills the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine with lit candles during New Year's Eve "Concert for Peace" in New York, on December 31, 2011. (Reuters/Ray Stubblebine) # 28 Fireworks light up the London skyline and Big Ben just after midnight on January 1, 2012 in London, England. (Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images) # 29 Fireworks explode during a pyrotechnic show to celebrate the new year in the coastal city of Vina del Mar, about 121 km (75 miles) northwest of Santiago, Chile, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Eliseo Fernandez) # 30 A large illuminated Peep waits to be dropped to usher in the New Year, Saturday, December 31, 2011, at the Levitt Pavilion on the Steelstacks Campus in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. (AP Photo/Express-Times, Matt Smith) # 31 Confetti is dropped on revelers at midnight during New Year's Eve celebrations in Times Square in New York, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/Gary Hershorn) # 32 Confetti rains down on celebrants at midnight during New Year's Eve in Times Square in New York, on January 1, 2012. (Reuters/ Kena Betancur) # 33 Female impersonator Gary Marion, as "Sushi," dangles above New Year's Eve revelers in a giant replica of a woman's high heel at the Bourbon Street Pub complex in Key West, Florida, December 31, 2011. The Red Shoe Drop is a Key West tradition to celebrate the arrival of the new year. (Reuters/Andy Newman/Florida Keys News Bureau/Handout) # 34 Brazilians celebrate at the annual New Year's Eve beach party on December 31, 2011 for the Copacabana Reveillon in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. One of the world's largest New Year's Eve parties in the world rang in 2012 with performances lasting through 3 a.m. (Konrad Fiedler/Getty Images) # 35 People watch the fireworks along Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro, on December 31, 2011 during celebrations. (Vanderlei Almeida/AFP/Getty Images) # 36 Fireworks burst over the Las Vegas Strip at midnight on New Year's Day 2012, as seen from Mix at Mandalay Bay. (Photo/Las Vegas News Bureau, Darrin Bush) # 37 A go-go dancer from Fire N Ice Entertainment performs with DJ Benny Benassi for New Years Eve at Yost Theatre in Santa Ana, California, on January 1, 2012. (AP Photo/Dan Krauss) # 38 Spectators at Gas Works Park watch fireworks light up the iconic Space Needle as the new year begins on Sunday, January 1, 2012 in Seattle, Washington. (AP Photo/seattlepi.com, Joshua Trujillo) # 39 The first rising sun of 2012 appears above Mt. Fuji, observed at Yamanashi prefecture on January 1, 2012. All Nippon Airways (ANA) had organized a rising sun observation flight with 137 passengers on New Year's Day. (JIJI Press/AFP/Getty Images) #

This artist's illustration shows an enormous halo of hot gas (in blue) around the Milky Way galaxy

THE MISSING BARYONS

Baryons are particles, such as protons and neutrons, that make up more than 99.9 percent of the mass of atoms found in the cosmos.

Measurements of extremely distant gas halos and galaxies indicate the baryonic matter present when the universe was only a few billion years old represented about one-sixth the mass and density of the existing unobservable, or dark, matter.

In the current epoch, about 10 billion years later, a census of the baryons present in stars and gas in our galaxy and nearby galaxies shows at least half the baryons are unaccounted for

Astronomers have used NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory to estimate the size.

If the size and mass of this gas halo is confirmed, it also could be an explanation for what is known as the 'missing baryon' problem for the galaxy.

Baryons are particles, such as protons and neutrons, that make up more than 99.9 percent of the mass of atoms found in the cosmos.

Measurements of extremely distant gas halos and galaxies indicate the baryonic matter present when the universe was only a few billion years old represented about one-sixth the mass and density of the existing unobservable, or dark, matter.

In the current epoch, about 10 billion years later, a census of the baryons present in stars and gas in our galaxy and nearby galaxies shows at least half the baryons are unaccounted for.

The Milky Way galaxy. Researchers now believe a vast gas cloud covers our galaxy. 'The big question is, how large is the halo, and how massive is it?' To begin to answer this question, the authors supplemented Chandra data on the amount of absorption produced by the oxygen ions with XMM-Newton and Suzaku data on the X-rays emitted by the gas halo.

They concluded that the mass of the gas is equivalent to the mass in more than 10 billion suns, perhaps as large as 60 billion suns.

'Our work shows that, for reasonable values of parameters and with reasonable assumptions, the Chandra observations imply a huge reservoir of hot gas around the Milky Way,' said co-author Smita Mathur of Ohio State University in Columbus.

'It may extend for a few hundred thousand light-years around the Milky Way or it may extend farther into the surrounding local group of galaxies.'Either way, its mass appears to be very large.'The estimated mass depends on factors such as the amount of oxygen relative to  hydrogen, which is the dominant element in the gas.

Nevertheless, the estimation represents an important step in solving the case of the missing baryons, a mystery that has puzzled astronomers for more than a decade. Although there are uncertainties, the work by Gupta and colleagues provides the best evidence yet that the galaxy's missing baryons have been hiding in a halo of million-kelvin gas that envelopes the galaxy. The estimated density of this halo is so low that similar halos around other galaxies would have escaped detection.