One killer planet shooting asteroids at Earth wasn’t enough? Really?
Conspiracists and UFO seekers have been claiming for years that a mysterious celestial body called Planet X, Nemesis or Nibiru was hidden away in our solar system.
When scientists announced this year that they believe there is a ninth planet in the solar system, the same Conspiracists were very, very happy – followed immediately by being very, very freaked.
They believe this Planet Nine and their prophesied doomsday planets are one and the same.
Meaning that its gravitational pull would start massive earthquakes and volcanic eruptions on our planet, spelling the end of all life.
That’s ALL LIFE, folks.
The New York Post suggested this Planet Nine discovery “might not be great news since the planet’s orbit might cause asteroids to come shooting at the Earth” !
Here’s their very restrained video
Let’s have a fun fact courtesy of Mike Brown. This is the scientist who took down Pluto and helped find evidence of Planet Nine, so he knows what he’s about.
Hey, so, fun fact? Planet Nine is not going to cause the earth's destruction. If you read that it will, you have discovered idiotic writing!
— Mike Brown (@plutokiller) April 8, 2016
So what do we actually know about Nibiru, Nemesis and Planet Nine?
The Niburu Cataclysm
The Nibiru cataclysm is a doomsday collision predicted between the Earth and a giant, rogue planet called Planet X or Nibiru.
In the 1970’s writer Zecharia Sitchin claimed that two ancient Middle Eastern cultures – the Babylonians and Sumerians – told of a giant planet – Nibiru – that orbited the Sun every 3,600 years.
There’s more – Ancient astronauts from the mysterious planet apparently visited Earth about 400,000 years ago and genetically engineered the inhabitants, creating us humans.
The idea of the Nibiru Cataclysm originated with Nancy Lieder, a Wisconsin woman who claims that as a girl she was contacted by gray extraterrestrials called Zetas, who implanted a communications device in her brain.
She said that she was chosen to warn mankind that Nibiru would sweep through the inner Solar System in May 2003 – though that date has been somewhat postponed.
The prediction pops up frequently in the popular media and has been embraced by many Internet doomsday groups.
Despite the buzz, there is no scientific evidence supporting the planet’s existence.
The Nemesis Theory
Nemesis is a hypothetical dwarf star thought to be a companion to our sun.
This doomsday scenario goes like this – Nemesis’ gravitational pull regularly jostles the faraway comet repository known as the Oort Cloud and sends comets shooting toward Earth.
This would explain the perceived cycle of mass extinctions on our planet, which seem to occur every 26 million years or so.
The theory is under fire from many different angles. Most telling of all, no telescope no matter how sensitive or advanced has ever spotted the infamous Nemesis.
Still, points for the name.
Just to confirm
PSA: Planet Nine is not Planet X or Niburu or Nemesis. All theories of "a planet out there" are not the same theory! pic.twitter.com/9yUClWTojF
— Mike Brown (@plutokiller) April 7, 2016
So what is Planet Nine?
Planet Nine is “the most planet-y of the planets in the whole solar system” according to Mike Brown, again.
While no-one has actually observed it, there is good evidence from the mysterious behaviour around it that it actually exists.
Astronomers are on the hunt for Planet Nine — which they think is about 10 times more massive than Earth, and orbits about 600 times farther from the sun than our planet does.
Theories range from how it might have been an exoplanet stolen by our sun to how it could have wiped out the dinosaurs.
Professor Brown and his team mischievously named the planet ‘Planet Nine’ instead of Planet X, as a nod to Professor Brown’s work towards declassifying Pluto.
In recent Planet Nine news: A new modeling study suggests that, if the world actually exists, it’s likely about 3.7 times wider than Earth and is downright frosty, with a temperature of about minus 375 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 226 degrees Celsius).
