Question

Why isn't there more media coverage of the 2012 doomsday? Explain to me what I am seeing in the video for HR 8791. Why did you guys finally decide to coordinate with other countries for the global space station or be in such a rush to find a planet that will support life. The biggest news today is the Health Care Reform but if you look at the words at the bottom on CNN they read that NASA has discovered a planet.

There is not more media coverage of the 2012 doomsday because the media realize it is a hoax. Fortunately most of the media prefer to write about real things, and they understand that 2012 is an Internet and UTube cult phenomenon without the slightest bit of evidence to support it. The only HR 8791 I know of is a Congressional Bill (HR stands for House Resolution) that has been the subject of a spoof by the satirical humor publication Onion. I hope you are not taking this spoof seriously. This sort of humor works only if readers can recognize the spoof. Concerning the International Space Station, that has been an international cooperative project all along, since design began. That is why it is called the International Space Station. In fact, the original Station modules were Russian, not American, and Russia has carried out most of the resupply flights to the Station. Finally, you mention the comment on CNN that a new planet has been discovered. Actually, more than 350 planets have been discovered by astronomers in the past decade. I hope you realize that these planets, including the one in the news today, are not in our solar system. The latest planet, discovered by the European space mission COROT (and not by NASA), is described in the following news story: “Astronomers have determined that a small extrasolar planet found by the French-led Corot planet-finding mission is a rocky planet like our own. The planet, Corot 7-b, was discovered last year but only confirmed in February. About 20 near Earth-sized planets, known as Super Earths, have been seen so far, but Corot 7-b was the first to be observed directly as it transited in front of its star, and not inferred from other measurements. However, astronomers were unable at the time to determine its density. Virtually all of the 370 or so extrasolar planets spotted to date are gas giants like Jupiter. According to new findings just released, Corot 7-b has a diameter 1.8 times that of Earth and a density about five times greater -- the most Earth-like planet discovered to date outside our solar system. It revolves around its star every 20.4 days. However, its surface temperature ranges from 2,000 to -200 deg. C, probably too hostile to support life.”

David Morrison
NAI Senior Scientist
October 14, 2009