NASA issued a statement clarifying that it had no role to play in a controversial study that said the world will be coming to an end soon.

Recently, a very controversial study by the National Socio-Environmental Synthesis Center (SESYNC), the University of Maryland (UMD), and the University of Minnesota made headlines. According to the study, Doomsday is not far away. The study revealed that it had received some funding from NASA to develop a model to study earth systems. Exaggerating the news, reports suggesting NASA had concluded the end of the modern world was close at hand went viral on the Internet.

The U.S. space agency has now released a statement clarifying that it had no role to play in the study, neither did it make any such conclusions.

"[The study] was not solicited, directed or reviewed by NASA. It is an independent study by the university researchers utilizing research tools developed for a separate NASA activity," the statement read. "As is the case with all independent research, the views and conclusions in the paper are those of the authors alone. NASA does not endorse the paper or its conclusions."

According to the study, the modern society faces the same kinds of falls suffered by the Roman and Mayan civilization because of "the stretching of resources due to the strain placed on the ecological carrying capacity" and "the economic stratification of society into Elites and Masses."

The study claims that the scarcity of resources will compel the elite to reduce or stop the flow of resources to the masses so that they can have enough for themselves. This will lead to further resource strains and will ultimately cause the destruction of the modern world.

This is not the first time the space agency has debunked a doomsday theory. In December 2012, the dreaded Mayan apocalypse that predicted the crashing of Earth Dec. 21 generated widespread fear worldwide. At that time, NASA went on record to rubbish the rumors and assure the public that the world will not end any time in the near future.

NASA addressed the "Mayans predicted the end of the world" theory on a new section of their website entitled "Beyond 2012: Why the World Won't End."

Earlier this year, news related to the Doomsday clock made headlines. The symbolic clock face represents the countdown to technology and climate related global destruction and has been in operation since 1947. The closer the minute hand of the clock is set to midnight, scientists claim  nearer the world is to approaching disaster. Ever since its inception, the closest approach to midnight was seen in 1953 at 11.58 pm. This was due to the testing of thermonuclear devices. In 2012, scientists set the clock to five minutes to midnight (11.55 p.m.).

In January this year, The Science and Security Board of the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists called on the United States and Russia to restart negotiations on reducing their nuclear arsenals, to lower alert levels for their nuclear weapons, and to scrap their missile defense programs. If not, the minute hand on the clock will remain at five minutes to midnight because "the risk of civilization-threatening technological catastrophe remains high."