Oh, it’s been far too long since we’ve seen this wonderful feature. Previously on a Real Life Scientist: Questions about Christmas, Questions about Space.

Q: Dear Real Life Scientist, a little while ago, my family and I went and saw the movie 2012. In the movie, they say that the world will end in 2012 because of an old calendar, and lots of bad things happen. In school, I learned that 2012 is only two years away — will what happen in that movie ever happen in the real world?
-Jonathan R., Sandusky, OH

Dr. Richard R. Williams III, Ph.D., Astronomy and History at Stanford University: Hey Jonathan, thanks for writing in. Yes, the movie 2012 has caused kids just like you to ask all sorts of questions about the Mayan calendar and what might happen when it ends in two years. But I can tell you that the producers of that movie have tricked you with a little movie magic: while there is a calendar used by the ancient Mayan people that does in fact end in 2012, all indications are that it’s only a coincidence. Humanity has used all sorts of calendars throughout history, based on everything from the movements of the stars to the changing of the seasons, and the truth is that they start and end all the time without any major changes to the world at all. No, it’s much more likely that the Mayans just didn’t understand or feel the need to mark a date as far in the future as 2012, and that’s why their calendar ended then.

The real end of the world won’t be marked on anyone’s calendar — it’s much more likely that the cataclysmic destruction of the earth will come without any warning at all. If history is any indication, 2012 is just a movie; when the real end of the world comes, you and your family will never see it coming.

Q: Dear Real Life Scientist, in school we learned about meteors, which are big flaming rocks that fly through space. Our teacher even said that some of them had hit Earth, and one maybe even killed all the dinosaurs! I asked what would happen if one ever hit us, and my teacher told us that we have telescopes and we can use math to know where they’ll hit long before they do. Is this true?
-Sally C., Portland, OR

Dr. Williams III: Hello Sally. It’s true, there are all kinds of formations and collections of minerals and materials flying through the sky (though more of them are frozen rather than flaming, at least until they hit Earth’s atmosphere). And yes, some of them have hit Earth before. In fact, lots of tiny meteors and meteorites hit our planet every day, usually burning up in the atmosphere above you. Only very rarely does a large piece of rock break through, but it has happened — there are very large craters in the western United States that many scientists believe were created by meteors. We don’t really know what would happen if a very large meteor hit Earth today, but depending on where it landed, it would possibly be extremely destructive.

We do have lots and lots of telescopes and radar dishes watching the sky, and I’d like to tell you, Sally, that we’ll definitely see a potential impact a long time in advance. But I can’t. Just over 10 years ago, a meteor 500 meters across — a major impact if it had hit us — was detected close to the Earth only a few days previous. In March 2004, a much smaller asteroid that passed extremely close to our planet was only detected a few days before impact. And in October of 2008, an asteroid that did eventually land in Sudan was detected only 20 hours before it reached Earth. We’ve been extremely lucky that we haven’t been hit so far, and the fact, Sally, is that if we are on a crash course with a major impact, we won’t know about it until it’s far too late.

Q: Dear Real Life Scientist: My mom says that we don’t need to worry about the end of the world because God loves us and when the end comes, he’ll appear to take us up to Heaven. That sounds good, but I’m not sure. What do you think?
-Jeffrey H., Gary, IN

Dr. Williams III: Jeffrey, I can tell you with conviction that there is no scientific evidence at all, ever collected, that tells us that hypothesis or anything remotely like it is even slightly true. Everything we’ve ever seen says that when you die, your consciousness ceases to exist and what’s left of your body breaks down and rots away. There is no scientific evidence to suggest otherwise.

And let me tell you, some of the faith-based evidence is pretty circumstantial as well.