Solar System ‘Apocalypse’ From Ominous Dust Cloud The End Of Days In 2014?
Sorry preppers and followers of end of days prophecy, but the world likely won’t end next month, this according to a Snopes report. The rumor and fear-mongering began in 2005, when an article appeared on Yahoo’s main site.
The post titled, “Planet-Dissolving Dust Cloud Is Headed Toward Earth!” predicted that a massive apocalyptic space storm has its sights on the planet, and will wipe out the entire solar system in 2014. However, the aforementioned fact-checking website debunked the claim and called it “bogus.” As the Inquisitr reported previously, it’s the same source that busted claims that NASA’s Curiosity rover had found a fossil fish on Mars.
When the post about a solar system apocalypse surfaced nine years ago, it appeared in the search engine’s “Entertainment and News” section. However, the reprinted story didn’t contain a disclaimer that said it was meant to “entertain.” Accordingly, many assumed the massive galactic dust storm, some 10 million miles wide, spawned by a solar wind, was heading towards earth at nearly the speed of light. Then, on its present course, the planet was supposed to be annihilated by June 1, 2014. A portion of the article appears on Snopes’ site.
“Scared-stiff astronomers have detected a mysterious mass they’ve dubbed a ‘chaos cloud’ that dissolves everything in its path, including comets, asteroids, planets and entire stars — and it’s headed directly toward Earth!
“Discovered April 6 by NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, the swirling, 10 million-mile-wide cosmic dust cloud has been likened to an ‘acid nebula’ and is hurtling toward us at close to the speed of light — making its estimated time of arrival 9:15 a.m.EDT on June 1, 2014.
The inclusion of a noted expert in the field of astronomy bolstered the belief that an apocalypse of epic proportions from an ominous dust cloud would wipe out the solar system, thus signaling an end of the world as we know it. And then, the source of the space prophecy, Dr. Albert Sherwinski, a Cambridge based astrophysicist, ended on a bittersweet note.
“The good news is that this finding confirms several cutting-edge ideas in theoretical physics. The bad news is that the total annihilation of our solar system is imminent.”
With the terminal date having come and gone, many conspiracy theorists are now saying NASA and the European Space Agency (ESA) are using the Rosetta landing probe on Comet 67P to mask the presence of a UFO of some sort, possibly a mother ship containing hostile alien life. UFO prognosticators say the government is trying to negotiate with said aliens to prevent a full-scale attack on Earth.
While it all sounds like a bit Buck Rogers and full-on science fiction, some are not dispelling claims that the world is coming to an end by way of a solar system-consuming dust cloud, similar to the one depicted in the picture above. Is this another Y2K, Orwellian, and Mayan end of days stunt?
[Image via: InsanePics]
