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Massive solar flares coming....Astronomer fears Apocalypse 2012 is true

Chennai, Sept. 19: Could the Mayan doomsday prophets have been on to something after all?

After the eponymous film about the ancient Mesoamerican prediction that the world will end in 2012 scared the socks off movie-goers and had sceptics shake their heads in disbelief, leading scientists now say that something close to apocalyptic could indeed occur when the Sun rises on December 21, 2012.

The eminent astronomer, Prof. K. Sundara Raman, may dismiss the prophecy as a myth, but he says extremely abnormal activity on the Sun that day will result in massive solar storms. “The solar wind, powered by huge coronal mass ejections, will fry communication networks and power grids across the world,” he says.

Unless some action is taken to mitigate the effect of the solar flare, Prof. Raman adds, entire cities, markets and government systems could plunge into chaos of the kind the modern world has never witnessed.

“The solar wind is a stream of stream of charged particles that blow out of the corona of the Sun at supersonic speeds to the outer reaches of the planetary orbits,” explains Prof. Raman, head of Indian Institute of Astrophysics, Kodaikanal.

“During violent sun storms like the one expected in December 2012, the Sun ejects a huge volume of electrified gas. It is capable of damaging power grids, communication services, satellites, spacecraft and aircraft.”

He points out that a similar phenomenon resulted in a total blackout of Quebec province in Canada for nine days in March 1989.

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'Iran on verge of potential US-led war'

Russian defense minister announced on Friday that Moscow would go ahead with its sale of P-800 Yakhont anti-ship cruise missiles to Syria.

The Israeli defense establishment is greatly concerned about Russia's plans to go ahead with a sale of advanced arms to Syria, a defense source said on Saturday.

"Israel views [arms sale] with great concern," the senior defense official said. "The weapons will eventually be turned against Israel."

According to the official, Defense Minister Ehud Barak raised the issue in meetings earlier this month with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and Russian Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov.

On Friday, Serdyukov announced that Russia would go ahead with its sale of advanced anti-ship rockets to Syria, despite recent attempts by U.S. and Israeli officials to thwart the planned deal.

The arms deal, signed in 2007, involves the sale of advanced P-800 Yakhont supersonic cruise missiles to the Syrian military, weaponry which Israel considers as capable of posing significant danger to its navy vessels in the Mediterranean Sea.

Last month, Haaretz reported that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had tried to sway his Russian counterpart, Putin, from completing the deal, reportedly saying the missiles could be transferred to Hezbollah and used against IDF troops, as was the case in the Second Lebanon War.