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Despite the hoopla surrounding the dateDec. 21, 2012, the world is not at risk of coming to a halt, NASA says.

Aside from that date marking next year's winter solstice, the longest night of that year, nothing else interesting is expected.

All in all, "sleep well on Dec. 21 of next year," said astronomer Don Yeomans, manager of NASA's Near-Earth Object program office at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., at a public talk yesterday (Dec. 8) about rumors of a 2012 apocalypse.