GREETINGS everyone! I’m always amazed about the things that people will believe. No, it’s extremely unlikely that the world will end in three months because the Mayans said it would (and they didn’t). No, there isn’t something strange going on with the Moon because someone on the Internet took a picture of a bizarre oval Moon, turned it sideways and did an entire long article about how this had never been seen before.

If you go out and look at the sky every night, you’ll see an oval, lopsided Moon twice a month, every month. It’s called a “gibbous Moon” and it occurs about three days before full Moon and about three days after.

No, the Sun isn’t about to explode in violent solar flares as far as we know. Astronomers expect this solar maximum to be relatively calm as solar maxes go. But if you ever do see the aurora borealis on Guam, prepare to lose your cell phone service and any other satellite communications. And it might not be a bad idea to dig out the tin foil hat!

Another great love of these doomsayers is the fact that Earth’s magnetic poles are flipping. Somehow that word “magnetic” gets lost and people start thinking Earth is just going to spontaneously roll over. Uh ... no ... but interestingly enough, there’s some pretty good evidence that we are at the start of a reversal of Earth’s magnetic poles.

The Earth’s magnetic field has flipped its polarity many times in the past. The last one occurred about 780,000 years ago; and if you went back in time to say 800,000 years ago and looked at your compass, the needle would point to the south pole and not the north. Many doomsday wackos have said this natural geological occurrence will lead to Earth’s destruction. Are they right? The answer, from the geologic and fossil records we have from hundreds of past magnetic polarity reversals, is a resounding NO!

Reversals are the rule, not the exception. In the last 20 million years, there has been a pole reversal (magnetic, NOT geographic!) about every 200,000 to 300,000 years. Since it’s been 780,000 years since the last one, we’re long overdue.

And the other thing that never makes it into the doomsday scenarios is that these things don’t happen overnight. It takes hundreds or even thousands of years and it’s not a “clean flip.” The magnetic fields morph and push and pull at one another, with multiple poles emerging at odd latitudes throughout the process.

Scientists call the last time that Earth’s poles flipped in a major reversal the Brunhes-Matuyama reversal. The fossil record shows no drastic changes in plant or animal life. Deep ocean sediment cores from this period also indicate no changes in glacial activity, based on the amount of oxygen isotopes in the cores. This says that a polarity reversal does NOT affect the spin axis because if it moved significantly from its present tilt of 23.4 degrees, the change would be evident in the glacial record.

And change is in the wind, so to speak. The magnetic north pole has been creeping northward since the early 19th century – when explorers first located it precisely – and it’s now more than 600 miles from its original location. It’s speeding up too, since scientists estimate the pole is migrating northward about 40 miles per year, as opposed to about 10 miles per year in the early 20th century. A large magnetic anomaly has appeared over Africa.

So, when the field flips, it will collapse and we’ll all be left to fry in the Sun’s radiation without its protection, right? Apparently not. Earth’s magnetic field can indeed weaken and strengthen over time, but there’s no indication that it’s ever disappeared completely.

The reversal has, in fact, started. It will take a long time to complete. And I suggest you find other things to worry about. All the nutcases on the Internet will provide you with plenty of material!