Question

I read that “December 21st the Earth will enter a ring called the photon belt. This will shut down completely our planet and we will have three days of darkness. NASA confirmed this yesterday, December 4th 2012. It is said that when darkness falls completely, it will feel cold and flashes of light will appear on the sky, and that this is a phenomenon that happens every 11 thousand years”. AND In all newspapers, internet news everywhere are some "new facts" about the end of world, government conspiracy to hide the truth, preparation of people in Russia and USA, buying shelters, food and water supply, it makes me sick even if i know that all it's stupid and irrational. I'm a mother of a 3 year old child and I'm 2 months pregnant as well. All this makes me very depressed, and I’m asking myself what should i do. My daughter is waiting for decoration of Christmas tree but I don't know will we need it at all. To be worse I have a young cousin who tried to commit suicide a week ago because she doesn't want to die suffering and facing the death of all people she loves. Please, sir I would like you just to help me explaining to her and myself as well that nothing out ordinary will happen, that we wont disappear in just one day.

In the past week my in-box has been deluged by questions about a photon belt and three days of darkness, all supposedly confirmed by NASA. This is a really dumb lie. There is no photon belt, and claiming that we will have 3 days of darkness without indicating how (will the Sun just turn off?) is pretty silly. Only one of the dozens of people who have written to me indicated any source for these remarkable claims, and that one source was an obviously tongue-in-cheek website that made no pretense to be reporting the truth. As far as the NASA confirmation claim, clearly none of these questioners bothered to look on the nasa.gov website to see if this was true. Also, none apparently was concerned that this amazing announcement from NASA was not reported in the newspapers or TV news. The second question is very troubling. I don’t know any way to answer other than telling the simple truth, that nothing will happen on December 21. As we get closer to this date, the world of the doomsday believers keeps getting weirder. I will be glad when this is over!

David Morrison
Astrobiology Senior Scientist
December 11, 2012