Debunking doomsday 2012 junk science

[REBROADCAST] Today is December 21^st, 2012. And the hype about the “end of the world” has reached a supernova, mostly based on a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar. Almost a year ago, we reached out to two astronomers to help us understand and debunk myths about the apocalypse, especially pseudoscience depicting planet-scale disasters, like a collision with a mysterious planet known as “Nibiru.” Today, we listen back to that hour with Dr. DAVID MORRISON directs the Carl Sagan Center for Study of Life in the Universe at the SETI Institute, in Mountain View, CA, and fields the public’s questions on NASA’s Ask An Astrobiologist website; and PHIL PLAIT, an astronomer, lecturer, and author whose Bad Astronomy blog which over the year moved from the Discover Magazine website to Slate.

AP Photo/Israel Leal