NASA releases 'world didn't end' video nine days early

NASA has released a video entitled 'Why the world didn't end yesterday' - more than a week before the date of the supposed 'Mayan apocalypse' on December 21.

The video begins, "December 22, 2012. If you're watching this video, it means one thing. The world didn't end yesterday."

The video then debunks the whole idea of the so-called 'Mayan prophecies', saying that the date is based on a misconception.

NASA has not explained why the video was released in advance.

Some commenters immediately jumped on the early release as 'evidence' that the world WILL end on December 21.

[Related: How the 'Mayan prophecy' came from a magic mushroom trip]

"I think it's strange that NASA put this out "before" the date and not after, would be like they think something might happen so they better do it before the date instead of after," said one YouTube comment.

NASA has an entire website devoted to debunking the so-called 'Mayan Apocalypse' - particularly claims that a 'rogue planet' wil collide with Earth.

The space agency claims that scientists would have been tracking any such object for at least a decade, saying, “The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth.

“This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.”

“Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye.”