MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical and Astronomical Services Administration (PAGASA) urged the public yesterday not to believe the Dec. 21, 2012 “end-of-the-world” scenarios.
“It is not real. It is only a hoax,” Mario Raymundo, chief of the PAGASA Astronomical Observatory, told The STAR.
The end of the world prophecy comes from claims that a supposed planet called “Nibiru” or “Planet X” is heading for Earth.
Soothsayers labeled Dec. 21 this year as the end of all things because the Mayan calendar ends on this date.
“If there is really Planet X, why haven’t we spotted it?” Raymundo said.
NASA said there is no factual basis for these claims.
“If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye,” the space agency was quoted as saying. – With Dino Balabo