Will the world really end in 2012?

Will the world really end in 2012?

There have been countless theories throughout time about how the world will end and how -- or if -- life will cease to exist. At the turn of the 21st century, conspiracy theorists claimed that the Y2K bug was only a small part of the impending devastation: The new century would bring about total destruction, and no one would survive. Others believe that Earth is slated for another ice age, which will kill off all living things. And according to astronomers, billions of years from now, the sun will become a red giant, expanding to a size larger than the Earth's orbit and consuming the Earth in the process. Even if the planet somehow survives, the sun will eventually shrink, becoming a white dwarf and gradually cooling off until it can no longer warm anything in the solar system.

An apocalyptic view of Seattle sinking into the Puget Sound -- will something like this happen in 2012?

In 2006, Mel Gibson released a movie about the Mayan civilization. "Apocalypto" follows one man's journey from slavery back to his family. During the course of the movie, a young woman prophesizes that a man will bring an end to the Mayans and wipe out their civilization. In the real world, some theorists don't believe a man will be the end of the Mayans -- instead, a celestial event will be the cause. The Mayan calendar even gives us a date for this theoretical event: Dec. 21, 2012.

How did the Mayans develop a calendar that could predict the end of the world? How does the Mayan calendar work? Do the Mayans really believe we have only four years left on Earth, and if so, why is Dec. 21, 2012, doomsday? Read on to find out if the end is near.

Devastation Predictions

Nostrad amus

Michel de Nostredame, also known as Nostradamus, was a 16th-century physician who also had a penchant for writing. He penned a series of prophecies, focusing prima rily on wars, disasters and destruction. Using metaphors and mystery, Nostradamus wrote these prophecies as quatrains, or four-line verses. His followers say he predicted the rise of Hitler, the Apollo moon landing and the attacks on Sept. 11, 2001. His critics say his writings are nothing more than ancient horoscopes, written to tell of events that undoubtedly will occur again and again. To find out more about Nostradamus and his prophecies, read our article on How Nostradamus Works.

The Long Count to the End

The Mayans have a complex system of calendars, and each calendar has a different purpose. There are thought to be 20 calendars in use, though only 15 have been revealed to the public. The Mayans keep the other five a secret within their culture. Some of the more commonly known Mayan calendars are:

• The Tzolk'in Calendar - Used primarily in crop rotation, this calendar allows one 260-day period to ready the land and one 260-day period to grow and harvest the corn.
• The Haab Calendar - This calendar lasts 360 days, with a 5-day period called the wayeb. Close to the Gregorian calendar we use today, this calendar follows the cycle of the sun.
• The Calendar Round - The Calendar Round gave the Mayans a way to record history in longer increments. It's a combination of the Tzolk'in and Haab calendars and goes through about 52 years.

Fifty-two years was longer than the Mayans' average life span at the time of the Calendar Round's creation. However, Mayan historians wanted to create a calendar that could be used to record history for centuries. This led to the Long Count calendar. The Long Count incorporates an era called the Great Cycle, which lasts approximately 5,125.36 years [source: Jenkins]. The idea that the world is on its way to an end comes from the Long Count.

Sometime during the , the Mayans stopped using the Long Count -- at least as far as the Spanish were concerned. A Mayan historian began recording events on both the Long Count and Gregorian calendars. Scholars then compared the dates on both calendars and confirmed the beginning of the current Great Cycle as August 13, 3114 B.C., making the end of the fourth Great Cycle -- you guessed it -- December 21, 2012. Theorists believe this is the day that the world will end, and all living things on <>Earth will die.

The end of the world may resemble another ice age.

However, the Mayans themselves don't actually believe that the world is going to end at the end of this cycle. In fact, they believe that it's a time of great celebration and luck when the planet lasts through a full Great Cycle. After all, we've made it safely through three other Great Cycles, and the world is still turning.

What makes this cycle so different, some believe, is that it ends on a winter solstice. On this particular winter solstice, the sun will align with the center of the Milky Way. This particular event happens only every 26,000 years or so [source: USA Today]. But is this celestial occurrence really going to end the world and kill us all? Probably not. Many scholars see this theory as extremists trying to cash in on the fears of others [source: USA Today].

So what will happen on Dec. 21, 2012? It's likely that the day will pass with no major event happening at all. People may not even realize it's the projected doomsday, although that's unlikely considering how much press it's likely to garner. We'll just have to wait and see what happens -- and hopefully update this article on Dec. 22, 2012.