The announcements by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, in the form of several Web site postings and a video posted on YouTube, were in response to worries that the world will end on Dec. 21, 2012, when a 5,125-year cycle known as the Long Count in the Mayan calendar supposedly comes to a close.
美国国家航空航天局在其官网上发了几次消息,并在YouTube上发了视频,就是为了回应人们对世界将在2012年12月21日终结的担心。在以“长历法”闻名的玛雅人的历法中,每5125年是一个轮回,据说在2012年12月21日这天是一个轮回的结束。
But this is only one version of apocalypse out there. In other variations, a planet named Nibiru crashes into us or the Earth's magnetic field flips.
然而,这只是世界毁灭的一个版本而已。其他的版本还有名为Nibiru的行星撞向我们或者地球磁场翻转等灾难。
There are hundreds of books devoted to 2012, and millions of Web sites, depending on what combination of "2012" and "doomsday" you type into Google.
有关2012年世界末日的书籍不下数百种,根据你在谷歌上键入的“2012”和“世界末日”的不同组合,能搜到数百万个相关的网站。