| Time marches on, bringing us closer and closer to the | | | | flares and coronal mass ejections together with the |
| auspicious date that many believe will bring us to time's | | | | intense radiation found in the central bands of this Milky |
| end: December 21, 2012. Many sources indicate that | | | | Way can have devastating effects on our earth. The |
| this date will prove to be a significant one in our earth's | | | | last time a lining up like this occurred, the last ice age |
| history. Of these, the best known is arguably the | | | | abruptly ended and the world's human population was |
| Mayan Long Count Calendar which ends precisely at | | | | drastically reduced. However, though the world was |
| 11:11 AM Universal Time on Winter Solstice, 2012. | | | | changed by these events, it did not end. |
| The ancient Mayans were brilliant mathematicians and | | | | With their astronomical prowess, the Mayans most |
| astronomers who measured the movement of | | | | certainly were aware of the position that key celestial |
| patterns made by the planets and stars with an | | | | bodies would assume in late 2012. A difference in |
| accuracy that has since been verified by modern | | | | outlook between the Mayan and modern interpretation |
| computer programs. Scholars believe that Mayan | | | | of what this would mean has a basis in Mayan |
| observation of the heavens led the ancient civilization | | | | mythology. For the Mayans, the sun was a deity, and |
| to acknowledge a future astronomical event of such | | | | the ridge in the center of the Milky Way was the |
| magnitude that the world as we know it would end. | | | | gateway from life to afterlife, or heaven. In light of this, |
| Can it be simply a coincidence that most researchers | | | | the 2012 alignment would take on deep meaning; at |
| agree that the year 2012 will see the greatest solar | | | | this time, the sun god would return to the afterlife, or |
| flare activity in almost 15,000 years? A quick | | | | heaven, from which he had come, bringing time full |
| comparison of Mayan and modern interpretations of | | | | circle. |
| coming solar events will help clarify why so many | | | | Like modern solar flare theory, the Mayan prophecy of |
| believe we are indeed living in the end times described | | | | 2012 does not claim that the world will be utterly |
| by many religions and cultures throughout the ages. | | | | destroyed. What both old and young theory purports is |
| From a scientific viewpoint, on December 21, 2012, our | | | | that natural, cyclical solar events will trigger change that |
| sun's plane will be in the greatest possible alignment | | | | will catapult those who survive into a very different |
| with the center of our galaxy, the Milky Way. Solar | | | | future than we can easily imagine. |