The End is Nigh..............21/12/12

[The Iceman]

From a biblical perspective we can only try to understand how this will happen. Peter says that first the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. This probably means the atmosphere will pass away with one big explosion. And second, the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Man knows approximately 105 elements in science? Scientists? The great majority of these would be called natural elements? The great result of these two events will be, "the earth also and the works therein" shall be burned up. This earth will be destroyed.
What shape or form that takes, who knows. Total destruction, anything left?

[Rossfan]

Either a nuclear explosion or a collision with an asteroid or some such body.

[laoislad]

Either a nuclear explosion or a collision with an asteroid or some such body.

Tony Fearon falling out of bed?

[Puckoon]

From a biblical perspective we can only try to understand how this will happen. Peter says that first the heavens shall pass away with a great noise. This probably means the atmosphere will pass away with one big explosion. And second, the elements shall melt with fervent heat. Man knows approximately 105 elements in science? Scientists? The great majority of these would be called natural elements? The great result of these two events will be, "the earth also and the works therein" shall be burned up. This earth will be destroyed.
What shape or form that takes, who knows. Total destruction, anything left?

WUM.

[illdecide]

The funniest thing i heard was they had stopped taking bets on it from some bookmaker...like if your bet came up you'd be dead so you can't collect and if you lose then the bookie takes it...either way you're fooked...lol

[Eamonnca1]

Did anybody see that 2012 film with Kevin Spacey in it?  God it was awful!

[heganboy]

WUM.

pretty sure thats not a wind up- ICE take s his religion pretty seriously

if by the world ending you mean the complete physical destruction of the planet then that's likely going to be the Sun reaching red Giant status, best guess is about 12 billion years, however it will be uninhabitable a long long time before that for example the oceans should be gone in about a billion years from now.

[The Iceman]

WUM.

pretty sure thats not a wind up- ICE take s his religion pretty seriously

if by the world ending you mean the complete physical destruction of the planet then that's likely going to be the Sun reaching red Giant status, best guess is about 12 billion years, however it will be uninhabitable a long long time before that for example the oceans should be gone in about a billion years from now.

There was a bit of tongue in cheek jabs at the "scientists" in the room so you're both right.
I do often think about how it will all happen. As a believer I'm not supposed to be afraid of the end times but I can't help it if the visions I have are conjured up by McCarthy's the Road or the like. A world like that for my kids to suffer through / in would be a lot to handle. the thought of them suffering is what I fear most.

The Bible does say we do not know the day or the hour and the end will come like a thief in the night sp I don't buy into any of these predictions. However it also says there will be signs to let us know the end is near and if we're all honest there has been quite a few signs over the last few years.

Who really knows.

[Wildweasel74]

with any luck the "end of days" will start in East belfast first, protest over that one you tossers

[ardchieftain]

Why are people going on about the end of the world in relation to the Mayans? They said nothing of the sort.
It is the dawning of a new Age, it would be nice to believe it will be an age of enlightenment but looking at the world today it wouldn't inspire anyone to truly believe that.

[Lar Naparka]

WUM.

pretty sure thats not a wind up- ICE take s his religion pretty seriously

if by the world ending you mean the complete physical destruction of the planet then that's likely going to be the Sun reaching red Giant status, best guess is about 12 billion years, however it will be uninhabitable a long long time before that for example the oceans should be gone in about a billion years from now.

Ah, that's not too bad then..
Mayo should just about manage to win another All Ireland by then and after that, I won't give a damn if the world ends or not.

[bennydorano]

I remember someone saying the Mayan thing has been misinterpreted, it's merely the end of their calendar calculations or something.

[Puckoon]

WUM.

pretty sure thats not a wind up- ICE take s his religion pretty seriously

Ack now C'mon!

[Eamonnca1]

Newfound Asteroid Buzzes Earth Inside Moon's Orbit
by Mike Wall, SPACE.com Senior Writer
Date: 11 December 2012 Time: 02:10 PM ET

A newfound asteroid gave Earth a close shave early today, zipping between our planet and the moon just two days after astronomers first spotted it.

The near-Earth asteroid 2012 XE54, which was discovered Sunday (Dec. 9), came within 140,000 miles (230,000 kilometers) of our planet at about 5 a.m. EST (1000 GMT) Tuesday (Dec. 11), researchers said. For comparison, the moon orbits Earth at an average distance of 240,000 miles or so (386,000 km).

Astronomers estimate that 2012 XE54 is about 120 feet (36 meters) wide — big enough to cause substantial damage if it slams into Earth someday. An object of similar size flattened 800 square miles (2,000 square km) of forest when it exploded above Siberia's Podkamennaya Tunguska River in 1908.

Asteroid 2012 XE54 also passed through Earth's shadow a few hours before its closest approach, generating an eclipse on the space rock's surface, researchers said. [Video: Asteroid 2012 XE54 Flies Closer Than Moon]

"Asteroids eclipsing during an Earth flyby are relatively rare," astronomer Pasquale Tricarico, of the Planetary Science Institute in Tucson, Ariz., wrote in a blog post Monday (Dec. 10).

The first known case, Tricarico added, was "asteroid 2008 TC3 which was totally eclipsed just one hour before entering Earth's atmosphere over Sudan in 2008, and asteroid 2012 KT42 experiencing both an eclipse and a transit during the same Earth flyby in 2012."

2012 XE54 will be coming back to Earth's neighborhood before too much longer. The asteroid completes one lap around the sun every 2.72 years.

Scientists have discovered about 9,000 near-Earth asteroids to date, but perhaps a million or more such space rocks are thought to exist.

And some of them are potentially dangerous. Observations by NASA's WISE space telescope suggest that about 4,700 asteroids at least 330 feet (100 m) wide come uncomfortably close to our planet at some point in their orbits.

So far, researchers have spotted less than 30 percent of these large space rocks, which could obliterate an area the size of a state if they slammed into Earth.

But there are much bigger asteroids out there, such as 4179 Toutatis, a 3-mile-wide (5 km) behemoth that's in the process of flying by Earth now. Toutatis will remain 4.3 million miles (7 million km) away during its closest approach Wednesday morning, but it may come closer on future passes.

Toutatis would inflict devastating damage if it slammed into Earth, perhaps extinguishing human civilization. The asteroid thought to have killed off the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was about 6 miles (10 km) wide, researchers say.

Follow SPACE.com senior writer Mike Wall on Twitter @michaeldwall or SPACE.com @Spacedotcom. We're also on Facebook and Google+.

[ONeill]

I do believe that we'll be well away from our planet before she's uninhabitable. We'll be sailing around looking for a bit of land to claim but that might take a right few years. Just hope the diesel's down.