Pick an apocalypse. Any apocalypse.

In recognition of the Apocalyptic theme of the upcoming Skeptics Conference, Vicki Hyde looks back in the vault to 2012 to see what doomsday predictions we managed to survive.

Humanity survived the hype and dread of the Judgment Day of 1844, the deadly Halley's Comet which almost hit the planet in 1910 with its toxic tail, the cataclysmic digital failure popularly known as Y2K in 2000, and 2011's Rapture. We are now facing another doomsday prediction set for December 12 2012, calling on spurious science like:

1. Planet Nibiru: a planet-sized object which, according to believers, is set to collide with the Earth in 2012. It's the brainchild of Nancy Leider, founder of the website ZetaTalk, who describes herself as a “contactee” who can receive messages from extra-terrestrial life. Leider said a collision with Planet Nibiru would destabilise Earth's pole, which would subsequently displace the Earth's crust. There is no such invisible planet. It should already be visible to the naked eye.
2. Mass Extinction: a doomsday claim that mass extinctions occur every 26 million years, due to the vertical oscillations made by the Sun as it orbits the galactic centre, regularly passing through the galactic plane. The shift in Sun's position increases the likelihood of galactic collisions leading to mass extinction of species. Dating such timings over millions and millions of years cannot be exact. And the Sun's galactic position is at least 10 million years away from another pass through the plane.

3. Death of Betelgeuse: even though the red supergiant star Betelgeuse is set to undergo a supernova at some point in future, it can never be a threat to the Earth, as the star is approximately 600 light years away.
4. Alien Invasion: conspiracy theorists claim that SETI, a collective name for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, has detected three large alien spacecrafts due to arrive on the Earth in 2012. Nope, didn't happen.
5. Geomagnetic Reversal: a pole shift or geomagnetic reversal, a term used to refer to the reversal of the Earth's magnetic south and north poles. To be triggered by a solar flare. Geomagnetic reversals take 1-10,000 years and don't start on a particular date. They are not periodic, nor are they triggered by solar flares.

6. God's Destructive Incarnation: Indian mythology says that Lord Kalki, or the destructive incarnation of Lord Vishnu, will degenerate the Earth in 2012, marking the end of the final phase of time in Earth's current cycle, known as the Kali Yuga. No sign of the incarnation as yet.
7. Timewave Zero: a numerological formula claims that the universe will reach “Infinite Complexity” in 2012, ending in November on the anniversary of Hiroshima bombing. As with all numerology, you can make numbers say what you want. The date was later shifted to December to match the Mayans.

8. Photon Belt: New Age believers say that belts or rings of photons are going to envelop the Earth causing apocalypse or a spiritual awakening. Photons forming belts is a physical impossibility, as photons always travel in straight lines.