Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
United States Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) asserts that the information circulating about the sun rising from the west is a major error in the natural sciences of the universe.
NASA Associate Administrator for Communications Bettina Inclan said neither NASA nor her organization ever said the sun would rise from the west.
“A magnetic pole reversal is a real phenomenon that has happened many times in the past, and scientists around the world are studying it, but a reversal that causes the Earth to rotate in the opposite direction causes the Sun to rise in the west is wrong,” Inclan said. AFP.
The statement was made in response to a Facebook post claiming that NASA announced the possibility of the sun rising from the west, caused by the earth rotating in the opposite direction and a sign that the end of the world was near in January.
The photo has circulated in several Facebook uploads and has been shared thousands of times.
Inclan admits that NASA and other related scientific organizations are often the target of fake news and scientific claims.
“This latest hoax is similar to other doomsday predictions that come and go,” said Bettina.
On December 1, 2011, NASA published an article entitled “2012: Magnetic Pole Reversal Happens All The (Geologic) Time”, which explains that the phenomenon of magnetic pole reversal has occurred several times over the past thousands of years.
The article describes the phenomenon of matter that governs the Earth’s magnetic field in motion. In millions of years there is no geological record to suggest that any of the 2012 doomsday scenarios related to a polar reversal should be taken seriously.
NASA has also published an article entitled “Why does the Sun rise in the east and set in the west?”. The article explained that the earth rotates towards the east, and that is why the Sun, Moon, planets and stars all rise from the east and move west across the sky.
Reported from SkyAndTelescope, The sun rises and sets precisely in the east and west only when the circular path on the earth’s surface splits into two equal parts, half in light and half in darkness.
Because planet Earth’s axis of rotation is tilted 23.5 degrees with respect to its orbital plane, this alignment occurs only at the spring and autumn equinoxes.
During the equinox, the plane that separates the day and night sides of the Earth is between the North and South Poles.
On any day other than the equinox, the plane is tilted, and a circular path passes through the light and dark sides of the Earth unevenly. Therefore, the length of night and day are different, as is the position of sunrise and sunset on the horizon.
(mrh/mik)
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