The Mayan Calendar

Will the world end on December 21, 2012?  There are some interesting events that happen on that day, the most notable; the great alignment.  According to the website 2012rising.com, The winter solstice of 2012 will occur at 11:11 Greenwich Meantime,  of course on 12/21/12.  On that morning, the sun will rise into a patch of sky that is referred to as the galactic center.  It is the location of a super massive black hole at the center of rotation for the Milky Way galaxy.  Now this event has happened before and really is not that unique.  However, there is a third event that will coincide at the same time.  When the sun reaches that part of the sky, it will also be in alignment with the Dark Rift.  The Dark Rift is a series of overlapping, non-luminous molecular dust clouds.  To the naked eye, the Great Rift appears as a dark lane that divides the bright band of the Milky Way length wise.

To me, the third event is what makes this Galactic Conjunction so interesting.  No, not because the Mayan Calendar stops on that date.  The last time the sun aligned with the Galactic center and the Dark Rift was 26,000 years ago.  You may ask, what happened twenty-six thousand years ago?  It marked the end of the last ice age.  Coincidence?  I guess that is for you to decide.