NASA quells rumor: Days of darkness in December? Of course not Question: Will Earth experience six (or three) days of darkness in December, 2014? Answer: No. We at EarthSky have received many questions already about the so-called days of darkness supposedly announced by NASA and supposedly coming up in December, 2014. This rumor has spread like wildfire, as did the same rumor in 2011, which called for days of darkness caused by the erstwhile Comet Elenin. 2014’s version of the rumor apparently first began with this article from Hutzlers. The article states: NASA has confirmed that the Earth will experience 6 days of almost complete darkness and will happen from the dates Tuesday the 16 – Monday the 22 in December. The world will remain, during these three days, without sunlight due to a solar storm, which will cause dust and space debris to become plentiful and thus, block 90% sunlight. Oh, brother. Just reading that quote gives us a combination of heartburn plus giggles. Why? Because there’s never been an event where a solar storm created that much dust and debris, at least not in living memory. Could such a thing even be predicted, sort of like Superman’s dad Jor-El predicted the explosion of planet Krypton (which also had never happened before)? Let’s remember for a moment that Superman was fiction, but, even given that, many other imaginary scientists on that imaginary planet Krypton were arguing that the explosion wasn’t really imminent. Likewise, here on our real Earth, a prediction of days of darkness caused by solar storms would be such outlandish science that scientists would argue about it up until the time it happened … or didn’t. NASA wouldn’t just suddenly “predict it,” in other words. Remember Nibiru, the fictitious planet, which was predicted to bombard the inner solar system and collide with our planet Earth in 2012? When acute telescopic observers wondered why this huge planet wasn’t visible in the night sky by 2010, Nibiru proponents answered the challenge by claiming the discovery of Comet Elenin in December 2010 provided proof of Nibiru’s existence. Moreover, prognosticators went on to say that Comet Elenin itself was to bring three days of darkness – which, of course, never came to pass. Meanwhile, Comet Elenin eventually disintegrated. So will you experience three to six days of darkness in December, 2014? No … unless you live north of the Arctic Circle, which has continuous darkness in winter every December. Bottom line: NASA did not predict – and December, 2014 will not have – three to six days of darkness.
Posted on: Sat, 08 Nov 2014 11:23:04 +0000
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