It’s a normal day; there’s nothing out of the ordinary to differentiate it from yesterday or tomorrow, until small asteroids start pelting the earth from all sides. And it gets worse­—much worse. In a matter of days an asteroid possibly larger than the state of Texas (although the residents of Texas might strongly disagree) could obliterate everything. That’s when the dashing Harry Stamper steps in to put the fate of the world on his shoulders. Stamper and his crew go out to destroy the asteroid and save the world all to the melodic and symphonic sounds of Aerosmith’s “I don’t want to miss a thing.”

People are enthralled with how the world could end. This intrigue is exemplified by the vast number of movies that deal with the end of the world. Michael Bay’s film, Armageddon, about an asteroid capable of destroying earth, is just one of many. According to www.Imdbpro.com, Armageddon took in $36.1 million in its opening weekend alone, on the way to grossing about $555 million worldwide. Zombie movies are also a popular draw with their ties to the apocalyptic idea of the walking dead. These movies also embody the widespread fascination with the end of the world. With recent films like Dawn of the Dead and Resident Evil: Extinction grossing $58 and $106 million respectively worldwide.

From a killer asteroid, to the end of the Mayan calendar to the biblical apocalypse, the end of the world has been played out on the silver screen or the small screen many a time, but what is the possibility of something like a killer asteroid? There are dates looming in the distant and not-so-distant future with the mysterious end of the Maya calendar in December of 2012, to an asteroid that is projected to come eerily close, but not hit earth, in 2029.

Doomsday asteroid

In 2029 an asteroid called 2004 MN4 will come within 18,600 miles of earth. It is expected to fly between the earth and the moon, says John S. Lewis, professor of cosmochemistry planetary atmospheres at the University of Arizona, Tucson. The asteroid will be closer to the earth than earth’s satellites. The 2004 MN4 asteroid will come close enough to us that earth’s gravitational pull will strongly affect the path of the asteroid, and after that, it will be difficult to map exactly where the asteroid will go, he says. Lewis is the author of books such as Mining the Sky and Rain of Iron and Ice.

The exact size of the asteroid that will come close to earth in 2029 is hard to determine, but it is estimated to be a couple of football fields in diameter based on its brightness, Lewis says.

There are about 1,200 asteroids that come close to Earth or cross Earth’s orbit, Lewis says. The average asteroid lasts 30 million years, and it flies around until it runs into a planet. Approximately every 100,000 years, a 1-kilometer sized object will hit Earth, which could be regionally disastrous. For example, a 1-kilometer asteroid would all but eliminate the Netherlands, he says. Asteroids are quite diverse in their make-up. They can be made of steel, clay minerals, sulfite minerals, and they have a typical impact speed of 25-30 km per second.

In terms of the end of the world, Lewis says, it won’t come from an asteroid. The planet won’t be destroyed because planets are too robust.

“It takes a lot to do in a planet,” Lewis says.

But there is something we can do to possibly avoid an asteroid attack in the future. An asteroid’s orbit can be changed by setting off a nuclear explosion near it that could deflect its path, Lewis says. The asteroid would then recoil away from the explosion, missing Earth instead of hitting it. Further destruction could also be avoided using rocket engines on the asteroid to divert it away from Earth, Lewis says.

The end of the Mayan calendar

More eminent than an asteroid is the end of the Mayan calendar. The calendar ends in a little more than five years, on December 21, 2012.

Maya expert John Major Jenkins says that the calendar is the most important thing the Maya left behind. He has written several books on the subject, like Maya Cosmogenesis 2012: The True Meaning of the Maya Calendar End-Date and Galactic Alignment: The Transformation of Consciousness According to Mayan, Egyptian, and Vedic Traditions. He says the loudest interpretation of the calendar, incorrectly so, is that it signals doomsday. Coming to this conclusion is understandable, Jenkins says, in a nihilistic civilization and in an era of spiritual darkness, apathy and ignorance. Authors that link 2012 with doom are simply spreading fear-based talking points, he says.

Western nihilists see the end of the calendar as indicative of doomsday. The Maya wisdom teachers who invented the 2012 calendar say it means transformation and renewal, Jenkins says, because of the cyclical nature of the calendar; a cyclical nature that makes the future unpredictable. “It’s similar to a newborn insisting on someone telling them what its new life will be like,” Jenkins says.

He also explains the end of the Mayan calendar and its cyclical nature in terms of adjacent days. The process of a day is cyclical; day becomes night, then the sun rises again and the day is renewed. Asking what will happen December 22, 2012, is similar to asking what exactly will happen tomorrow, he says.

“The insistence on details is not answerable,” Jenkins says.

Biblical Apocalypse

“The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave unto him to shew unto his servants things which must shortly come to pass; he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John.”

That is the first line of the Book of Revelations; the final book in the New Testament, a book that describes the biblical end of the world.

KU Religious studies professor Timothy Miller says the book is attributed to Saint John, and it is thought to have been written toward the end of the first century. The book is full of coded messages because during the Roman Empire under Emperor Domitian Christians were terribly persecuted.

The Book of Revelation predicts great sufferings at the end of the world, he says. The true Christians will survive the suffering and will be ready for paradise. Some predict it as the end of the world, and it almost works as a textbook describing the end of the world, Miller says.

The book is packed wall-to-wall with symbols, images and metaphors; he says It’s visual writing, so it all has to be interpreted, Miller says.

“You can make it say almost anything you want it to,” he says.

The phrase “the end of the world” can mean different things to different people. Some might think it’s the destruction of the human race, and some may think it means the destruction of the planet earth. Either way you differentiate the meaning of the phrase “the end of the world,” everybody is interested in it.