The Arthur C. Clarke Centre yesterday dismissed the internet reports which said the world would end on December 21, 2012.

A spokesman from the Centre told the Daily Mirror that the USA based NASA had also denied the doomsday prediction. He therefore dismissed the reports of a total blackout on December 21.

The Daily Mirror learns that one fundamentalist Christian church had distributed VCDs on a documentary which said the world would end on December 21 this year. A young man who did not wish to be named said his wife had been given a CD by this church which she usually attends.

However referring to the solar flares or solar winds the spokesman from the Arthur C. Clarke Centre said one could predict such a thing only two or three days before.

The NASA dismissed the claims saying there was no credible evidence of such a happening. “The world will not end in 2012. Our planet had been getting along for more than 4 billion years and no credible scientist knows of such a threat,” a report from NASA said.

Also, NASA said there was no planetary alignment in the next few decades and even if such a thing occurs its effects on Earth would be negligible with no possibility of meteors hitting the earth.

However NASA said next solar maximum (solar flares) could occur in the 2012-2014 time frame but ruled out any effect on Earth as it was predicted to be an average solar cycle. These solar flares could cause some interruption of satellite communications.

Meanwhile the Centre dismissed the reports that said it had warned the Airforce to be on the alert on the unidentified flying objects that were reported to be seen in the Sri Lankan sky. (Yohan Perera)