Dec. 21, 2012 won’t be the end of the world, despite movies and tabloids that claim the contrary.
The Morehead Planetarium ended its ‘Out To Lunch with Science 360’ series Thursday with a presentation called “The Truth Behind 2012,” which debunked the most popular myths behind end-of-the-world conspiracy theories.
Casey Rawson, a graduate student in the School of Information and Library Science who wrote the program, presented scientific evidence against Earth’s destruction to a room of about 30 participants.
After the presentation, three UNC professors took the stage.
Geological sciences professor Kevin Stewart, physics and astronomy professor Dan Reichart and Mayan hieroglyphic writing and languages specialist David Mora-Marín assisted Rawson with her myth-busting.
They answered a wide range of questions from the audience and gave quick lessons in solar flares, super volcanoes and Mayan culture.
The planets will not align and throw the sun out of position, the Earth’s magnetic field is not slated to switch poles and kill all life on the planet and no large detected asteroids are on a collision course with the planet, the presenters said.
“Science 360 is a program designed by the planetarium five years ago and its goal is to get science out to the general public,” Rawson said.
Science 360 was primarily funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation.
