Is there any astronomical events predicted for this year, 2012? (they suspect enormous sun spots and flares that fry the earth temporarily, to survive means living underground for a year or so with mutants born of irradiated parents) I have also heard that the earth along with our solar system orbits through the milky way at an oblique angle meaning we pass through a detritus belt every so often also exposing us to increased probability of asteroid collision. any thoughts?

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The Mayan Calendar does not "end" in 2012. It simply rolls over. There will certainly be astronomical events, as there are every year, but none being the harbinger of doom claimed by some in certain, less-than-skeptical circles.

yes rollover, should have been more specific,but nothing extraordinary for this time?
how about sunspot cycles?

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Sign up to sue the Sun

The last solar maximum was in 2001, and the solar cylce is generally 11 years long. So 2012 should coincide with a solar maximum.

That means there should be plenty of sunspots to see, and plenty of solar activity. But don't expect anything apocalyptic!

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There is also a Venus transit in 2012. I can't think of any other significant 2012 astronomical events off the top of my head.

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Regarding the Solar system and the milxy way- I think that as the sun bobs up and down the plane of the galexy it goes into the dence part every couple of million years- the extra stars pull on our oort cloud and send comets hurteling into the solar sytem- It still takes hundreds of thousands of years for them to to reach us though...

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Gravity works in 3D, not only when you just happen to pass through a certain line. And the speed with which we pass through that line is much too slow to have such a definite deadline. Plus, as you say, even if there were some results, the effects would be spread over a very long period.
American Scientist says:
With such a slow movement (once every 33 million years), and with the thickness of the Milky Way, there would be no noticeable difference between this year and seven years later in gravitational pull of other stars. All this supposing that we are anywhere near a crossing of the galactic plane, of which I find no notice.

Furthermore, from the same article:So not much stuff is nearby, meaning again less chance of interstellar disasters and so on.

According to this 11 page pdf, the last crossing of the galactic plane is +- 1,5 million years ago, and the next influx of large comets (related to it) +- 1 million years away. So the 2012 date is pure nonsense as related to the crossing of the galactic plane.

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Very nice site Wolverine.

From that site:
From my understanding, that correlation between our calendar and the Mayan one is somewhat uncertain, and could be off (which might push the date to 2011 or 2013 or more).

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At night the stars put on a show for free (Carole King)

Forget death, doom, and despair in 2012 because the Mayan calendar rolls over. The odometer in my car will probably roll over next week.

As long as it doesn't roll over and play dead.

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I would be a small loss if it did

We can conclude this for sure simply by waiting for 1 Jan 2013.

Regards,
Ian Tresman

I had a church-going colleague who firmly believed that apocalyptic events were going to occur at midnight, Dec 31, 1999. He even took his fiance to someplace in New Zealand, which was supposedly the first place in the world to usher in the New Year.

Needless to say, he came back a trifle embarassed.

Back to Mayans...

I've often wondered, what with ancient, primaeval cultures being so obsessed with astronomy & time-keeping, if it could be the case that a near-miss asteroid was spotted, orbital trajectories plotted, and a future date forecasted for impact with Earth? Too far-fetched? It would certainly explain a great deal of so-called "prophecy" in various scripture/myths/etc.

In a word, yes. This culture was able to devise a rather nifty calendar, sure -- but they clearly lacked the tools and knowledge observe NEOs/NEAs and calculate their ephemerides.

large amounts of the ancient world's obsession with astronomy tied in with agriculture. after all, they were totally self-sufficient, which means it's a lot easier to muck things up for yourself.

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I wonder if the ancient people could "predict" any trajectories without any mathematical laws.

Also, what happens if the Mayan calendar ends/ rolls over ? I can't see this thing having any significance. And if there were significant events like asteroid collisions, sunspots , etc. I guess our scientists (aided with Computers and all) could've easily predicted them, given that the Mayans predicted them without any aids.

All though this is rightly disregarded as utter nonsence. In science there is all ways room for the 'New'.
There can be no way the ancients of any culture could know what might happen in or near 2012., but.
As thin and shalow as it might be there must be a nagging doubt about any domsday prediction, but.
We live on the surface of a planet that is moving. The system of planets and our sun is also moving, and so is the whole of the Galaxy moving. Its not to difacalt to make very resonable predictions of where things will be at any given time, but.
I must concider that we don't and can't know every thing. It might be to our horrer that we learn of a masive fast moving object being ripped apart by the suns gravaty, and as it emerges from behind her. We learn of its new corse. Right through here.
Take a deep breath, sigh. and say good by.
Personaly I have more faith in my felow astronomers. The endless vigil of many whom follw the acultation events. Are mapping these roag objects.,and with this information we can protect our future.

Gillianren has it exactly right. The ancients were not obsessed with astronomy, it was a necessary tool. They didn't have paper calendars, GPS, and quartz watches. But they did have the sky (without air and light pollution), written languages and rich oral traditions, and a need. They also had the same intelligence we had. It was critical that they knew the seasons and when to plant, harvest, etc. Even in tropical climates, like Central America, it was important to know the rainy and dry seasons.

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George Noory is obsessed with the whole 2012 thing on C2C.
Another reason to not listen...

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