How did the mayans know that the center of the galaxy, the sun and the earth would align the DAY it will.

Question

We recently proved this with satallites and massive telescopes. Please explain how they could have possibly know the day it was going to happen. Also if you would like to explain their great leader who had white skin, looked young and had beautiful white hair.

Answer 1

haha, youve been tricked.

think about it. the sun, the earth, and the center of the galaxy line up twice every year. nothing happens.

the mayans didnt know it was going to happen. they didnt know the earth went around the sun. they didnt know there was a galaxy. their calendar RESTARTS. it is cyclic. this will be the 13th cycle. can you guess what that means? this is the 12th time it has restarted, and...ta-da! were still here.

Answer 2

They also predicted that the world would end December 21, 2008.

Answer 3

The Mayans had no conception of Galaxies.  That is a recent discovery.  No one knows anything about Quetzalcoatl.  He is a puzzlement.  I'm guessing if he had beautiful white hair, he used Herbal-essence shampoo.  No, wait, that cannot be right.  I'm becoming delusional. He could have been an albino.  He could have been a European whose ship landed in the Americas centuries before Columbus.  No one knows.  And very likely no one will ever know.  

Answer 4

They didn't.  All that stuff about alignment of galaxy center, the sun and the earth is just a bunch of lies, in the same category as astrology, and all the other unfulfilledd end-of-the world profecies that have been regularly popping up every few years .  By the way, the sun, earth and the galaxy center align (more or less accurately) every year.  Anybody who has even basic notions of positional astronomy knows that.

Now, the Mayas were (and still are) phenomenal observational astronomers who have documented, with great precision, the cycles of many celestial objects: the Moon, Venus, the Pleiades, and probably other planets.  The also developed a highly accurate and complex calendar that allowed them to document historical events, as well as predict certain astronomical phenomena.  Their calendar and astronomical knowledge has nothing to do with the current histeria about a supposed end of the world prediction.  This is just a hype that somebody is profiteerinng from, by exploting people's ignorance and gullibility, using the Mayan calendar as a pretext.

If you seriously want to learn about Mayan astronomy, read "Skywatchers" by Anthony Aveni.  He is a profession of archaeoastronomy who has spent his life studyng ancient cultures' astronomical knowledge and written several very good books on the subject.

Also, Maya did not have a "leader who had white skin, looked young and had beautiful white hair".  They shared, together with other Mesoamerican cultures, the myth of Kukulcan (known as Quetzalcoatl to the Aztecs), who was a benevolent god-teacher who taoght ancient people how to cultivate maiz, and many other useful things.  They decribed him is a tall man with beard and white hair, or alternatively, as a feathered snake.  They also believed that he returned to the skies in a fiery vehicle that became a star.  Many ancient cultures share this connection between divine figures and celestial objects - for example, Christians have their myth about the Bethlehem star.

Answer 5

They didn't, and nobody has 'proved' this with telescopes or satellites.

The mayans didn't even know the correct length of a year.

Answer 6

Comrade, you have been deceived.

The Mayans had no such abilities. Furthermore, the Earth-sun-galactic centre alignment happens once a year, so quit worrying about it. I don't seem to die every year, lol.  

Answer 7

Um... Not to pop your balloon, but the center of the galaxy, the Earth and the sun *almost* align about twice a year.  The off-set of Earth's orbit means it won't happen *exactly* for another 140,000 to 170,000 years.  

Answer 8

Oh, puh-LEEEEEZE!!!

This is the most ridiculous amalgamation of garbage I've ever seen on Yahoo! Answers, and that says a lot!  The Mayans know no such thing.

And the red herring about their leader with the "beautiful white hair" -- oh, come on.  Why would anyone care?

Answer 9

Oh my gosh!!! you are having yourself on. What a load of codswallop.

Every year, the earth, the sun and the centre of the galaxy are aligned, twice so. Big deal.

I would not consider your source of informaion reliable. Start all over again and read science, not astrology garbage.

The so called great leader of the mayans, as you described him, has had to have been an albino. I have never ever heard of such a freak being eleted  and made leader. Only Rabbit 12. He was a native American, not some created freak.

Answer 10

The Sun, Earth and the centre of the galaxy will NOT align. The centre of the galaxy is 6 degrees away from the plane of the Earth's orbit, so an alignment can't happen. What does happen is that the Sun appears to cross the central plane of the galaxy as a consequence of the motion of the Earth in its orbit. This happens twice a year, every year. This is a completely unimportant event that invariably passes unnoticed, as it will in 2012.