Today, I studied more about the event horizon of black holes, when some know-it-all from Yahoo! Answers sent me a personal message. He said my answers weren't very helpful and, much like the guy mentioned in my other episode, he said I needed to focus on other 'important' issues. Don't you hate when that happens? Usually, the person is 18-24, and they believe they have the entire world figured out. Knowing the guy must have not noticed my answers to say they 'aren't helpful,' I ignored his comment and responded with, 'What do you have in mind?' He said I 'should be focused more on politics (predictable, and unknown to him, politics is something I'm almost addicted to,) and the 'fact' the world would end in 2012.'

At that moment, I just stopped taking the guy seriously. I thought, 'Oh my gosh, another guy that believes in conspiracy theories.' Yet, I took a few seconds to think and concluded, 'Hey, maybe he has a point.' I asserted the world probably is not 100% guaranteed to end in 2012, but it's still a possibly.

Many people focus too much on what happens in the world, such as soldiers risking their lives for a country with a misused economy, people dying daily over poverty and disease, crime rates, and capital, yet, they careless about what happens outside the world, which has a better chance of killing us than humankind itself. The realm of outer space is beautiful and mystery-filled. Even though astronauts reside in the International Space Station and study outer space extensively, no one can figure out outer space 100% or what created it.

However, we know outer space contains matter such as hydrogen and helium, and other objects such as comets, meteoroids, and asteroids. These can be the catalyst of our destruction in 2012. Comets are chunks of rock and ice in space. The rocks originated from the surfaces of planets and or asteroids and freeze because of low temperatures in outer space. When comets come in contact with sunlight, the heat triggers a chemical reaction which melts the ice that produces a tail-like streak called the 'coma.' Comets are animated within their own orbit. In 2012, a large comet could hit Earth, kills billions of people, and ruin the economy. Well, this doesn't count because, chances are, if we'd die, the world hasn't 'ended,' it only ended for humans, and maybe some other unfortunate organisms.

Scientists base the age of the world by radiometric dating. Also, many scientists assume stars are older than their orbiting planets. Lord Kelvin, used thermal gradients (heat transfer) to calculate Earth's age as 100,000,000 years old. Though, today, many scientists believe Kelvin's age determination was off because he was unaware that heat is generated within Earth by radioactive decay. During the process of radioactive decay, an element breaks down into another lighter element, producing radiation in the process. Each element has its own distinct rate of decay. The rate is denoted as 'half-life.' Some elements have short half-life while others are long. Scientists know elements with long half-life remain within Earth's crust, while elements with shorter half-lives completely disappear. Therefore, using manmade machines such as a mass spectrometer, they determine the age of rocks by the relative proportions of radioactive materials in geological samples that remain within Earth's crust.

According to the machines, some rocks date back to millions of years. However, scientists determine the age of stars solely on manmade machines and no hardcore truth. The machines utilized only provide scientists with a 'manmade' answer of the Earth's age because the machines were created by humans, and scientists themselves make only estimates. Thus, the world can be much younger than 4.54,000,000,000, years. Knowing that, the same applies to the sun, which is a medium-sized star. Astronomers estimate the sun lived a half-life and would die within 5,000,000,000 years. However, assuming the machines used to date the Earth's age were wrong, the sun could die sooner than expected. When the sun dies, as does life, and everything within our solar system gets destroyed because they require the sun for energy.

More importantly, the world could end as a result of an unseen agent, popularly known as the 'black hole.' When massive stars die, they become black holes. Black holes are perfect blackbodies in outer space, which are objects that absorb all forms of electromagnetic radiation. The gravity of the remnants is so strong, the surrounding gases that increased in size are pulled inward, which packs the gas into a smaller place. Eventually, five times as much mass as the sun becomes packed within a sphere 30 kilometers in diameter. At that point, the gravity is so strong, nothing can escape, not even light. The remains of this newly created 'star' becomes a black hole. Black holes are not actually 'holes,' but rather an area in outer space containing large amounts of gravity.

They're called 'holes' because they often sit in the center of other matter, which appears to look like a literal black hole, as the name implies, in its center. When the matter gets sucked in or moves away from the black hole, it would be completely invisible, as seen in the image on the right. The black hole has a one-way surface called the 'event horizon,' in which objects can fall into, but can't escape due to extreme gravitational pressure. Black holes often sit within the center of galaxies and suck surrounding energy, which leads to another possible armageddon in 2012. Black holes have been known to fire jets of energy, as shown in the image to the left. These jets have extremely high contents of radiation capable of destroying anything in its path, including nearby galaxies. These types of black holes are colloquially known as 'death stars.' Jets can be fired in long distances. In 2012, a nearby black hole could shoot a jet that extends to our solar system, effectively destroying it. According to 'Hubble Law,' the 'Hubble Law' asserts the farther the galaxy, the faster it recedes. Galaxies contain stars of all sizes, including super and hyper-giant stars. Perhaps a galaxy, even though the Milky Way also recedes, could move closer to Earth, and fire it's jet upon the Milky Way, destroying our solar system. Perhaps even a supermassive black hole within our own Milky Way could strike at any time. Brace for impact!

Therefore, that proves, if we wish to live within a peaceful society, we have much more to worry about than politics because we can be killed by what we least expect. Open your mind before you tell someone else to open theirs.

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