I'm more concerned about what this means for the home planets of Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect.

I know The Bad Astronomy guy is a Farker, but another thread on this?

Rev. Skarekroe: I'm more concerned about what this means for the home planets of Zaphod Beeblebrox and Ford Prefect.


It can't be any worse than the Great Collapsing Hrung Disaster.

DSEILXYC: If it is about 600 light years away, if it explodes in 2012, we won't know about it till 2612 or thereabouts... right?

And since the world ends in May, it won't really matter, will it?

No, it means it went supernova in 1412. 2012 is when the GRB is going to hit (it's moving at the speed of light) and basically turn the surface of the earth into a great big microwaved burrito.

//FTFA
//I'm an actual scientist douchebag

I'm sick of hearing about the farking Mayans. What could they possibly know? Yeah they built some cool pyramids but they were all but wiped out by Europeans with muskets. fark the Mayans.

And there needs to be some sort of penalty for the assholes who really think the world is going to end on May 21st, 2011 or in 2012 when it doesn't happen. Nothing sadistic but a good ass kicking would suffice.

Mugato: I'm sick of hearing about the farking Mayans. What could they possibly know? Yeah they built some cool pyramids but they were all but wiped out by Europeans with muskets. fark the Mayans.

And there needs to be some sort of penalty for the assholes who really think the world is going to end on May 21st, 2011 or in 2012 when it doesn't happen. Nothing sadistic but a good ass kicking would suffice.

This, but I should note it was the Aztec who were wiped out by the Europeans---the Maya civilization mysteriously disappeared centuries earlier.

/Orion's gonna have some bad shoulder pain...

Fun fact: most of the energy of the collapse will be put out in the form of neutrinos. 65 billion (65,000,000,000) of them pass through each cubic centimeter of you or anything else on Earth each second, created by our rather well-behaved Sun.

They are essentially harmless since they interact so weakly with matter that they can only be detected one at a time, at considerable effort and expense, using giant tanks of chemicals buried in the Earth's crust.

Unlike the collapse of a binary pair of neutron stars or a quasar or some such far-fetched thing, super novas happen often enough to appear in the historical and astronomical record based on ocular sightings.

Anything that happens more than once a thousand years is unlikely to destroy the world, except maybe a big solar flare--the last time we had one of those, we didn't have much in the way of electronics--but a few telegraph wires burned out.

cretinbob: turn the surface of the earth into a great big microwaved burrito

Even though it's a lot of radiated energy, several hundred light years squared is a lot of attenuation. I doubt your heating bill will drop all that much.

SkittlesAreYum: Paris1127: This, but I should note it was the Aztec who were wiped out by the Europeans---the Maya civilization mysteriously disappeared centuries earlier.

Wikipedia disagrees. The Spanish fought the Mayans, and Mayan people still exist today.

OK, I'll rephrase: the Mayan civilization, the one which had built pyramids in Central America, the ones who were geniuses at mathematics, the ones who developed the calendar in question, were not a great civilization anymore when the Spanish arrived, but a shadow of their former selves.

mantidor: Imperious Rex!: Paris1127: SkittlesAreYum: Paris1127: This, but I should note it was the Aztec who were wiped out by the Europeans---the Maya civilization mysteriously disappeared centuries earlier.

Wikipedia disagrees. The Spanish fought the Mayans, and Mayan people still exist today.

OK, I'll rephrase: the Mayan civilization, the one which had built pyramids in Central America, the ones who were geniuses at mathematics, the ones who developed the calendar in question, were not a great civilization anymore when the Spanish arrived, but a shadow of their former selves.


So just because their civilization wasn't as great by the Spanish arrived, they 'mysteriously disappeared'? Not trying to snark, just trying to understand your opinion.


The current surviving mayas do not know what happened to the "piramid building/astronomer" mayans. They have always been small tribes that never were absorbed by what we know as the huge mayan empire. They are technically mayan only because of the language they use, but what happened to those huge city-states and why they collapsed is not known. They were discovered much, much later, in the 19 century if I'm not mistaken.

Essentially this.

Knara: pandabear: cretinbob: turn the surface of the earth into a great big microwaved burrito

Even though it's a lot of radiated energy, several hundred light years squared is a lot of attenuation. I doubt your heating bill will drop all that much.

Indeed. I am somewhat amused by the idea that somehow we're gonna get hit by a gamma ray burst from Betelgeuse, though. It tickles me in that "laugh at the tinfoil hatters" way.

Paris1127: This, but I should note it was the Aztec who were wiped out by the Europeans---the Maya civilization mysteriously disappeared centuries earlier.

Well I'll admit to knowing fark all about history so I defer to your correction of my post. But the point remains.

I mean they had to stop somewhere, didn't they? The guy writing (or carving or scribing or whatever) the calendar had to at one point say, "2012 is good enough. Those aliens who built the pyramids for us will have overtaken the planet by then anyway. I'm going for a beer. We have invented beer right? I know those Egyptian pricks have.