Mayan Cosmology Cycle Ends: Precision Cosmology Progresses
2,004 views · Published 1 February 2012 · 52:47 · Indexed 4 October 2026
Channel: Berkeley Lab · 2012 · Science & Technology
In a public talk in front of the Great Pyramid of Kukulcan at Chichen Itza, Berkeley Lab's Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist George Smoot discusses the remarkable precision that ancient Mayan astronomers achieved solely with the naked eye and comments on the significance of the approaching end of the current World Age of the 5,000-year-long Mayan Long-Count Calendar, due to conclude on the 2012 winter solstice. No, the end of the world is not at hand, Smoot says, but it's true that we're undergoing a fantastic transition in cosmology. The Mayan view of the universe was based on the sun and moon, a handful of planets, and a couple of thousand stars. Ours is an evolving cosmos reaching back over 13 billion years, based on a cornucopia of data accumulating almost daily and including hundreds of billions of galaxies. Smoot's talk was part of the fourth annual winter school for young physicists on "Essential Cosmology for the Next Generation," organized by the Berkeley Center for Cosmological Physics and Mexico's Advanced Institute for Cosmology.
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