On July 25, 2011, SHTF NEWS posted an item that stated respected astrophysicist Carl Sagan described a "baloney detection kit," tools that skeptical thinkers use to investigate new theories. Some of the primary tools include distrust of information that isn't independently verified, critically analyzing ideas as opposed to being irrationally attached to them because it's intriguing and a preference for simple explanations over outrageous speculative ones. What's the origin of this panic about Nibiru, which astronomers say doesn't exist?
Some People are Obsessed with a Nibiru/Earth Collision
There are theorists who claim a planet coming in from the edges of our solar system will crash into Earth and wipe out life in 2012 or, in some opinions, 2011. David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute, stated that an astonishing amount of people are watching YouTube videos and visiting websites with nothing in their toolkits.
Morrison estimates that there are about two million websites featuring the impending collision. He receives, on the average, five email questions about Nibiru daily. Once a week, he receives a message from youngsters who say they are ill and/or contemplating suicide because of the coming “doomsday.”
Origins of Nibiru Theory
According to an item written by Natalie Wolchover in the Air & Space section of foxnews.com/scitech, the idea of the doomsday planetary collision was first postulated in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, a self-proclaimed alien communicator. She claims that she has the power to receive messages through a brain implant from aliens in the Zeta Reticuli star system. On her website, ZetaTalk, she claimed that she was chosen to warn humans of an impending planetary collision that would wipe out life in May 2003. This didn’t happen, so Lieder's followers chose 2012 as the new date for the collision, which coincides with other doomsday prophecies that focused on the end of the Mayan calendar.
How Nibiru was Named
Lieder initially called it Planet X, then, later connected it to a planet that was assumed to exist by writer Zecharia Sitchin in his book The 12th Planet, published by Harper in1976. According to Sitchin, ancient Sumerians wrote about a giant planet called Nibiru, the twelfth planet in the solar system. It has an oblong orbit that comes near Earth every 3,600 years. Humans evolved on Nibiru and colonized this planet during a previous orbit.
Criticisms of Stitchin’s Theory
Historians and language experts say that he mistranslated ancient texts. Sumerians didn’t believe in a universe with so many planets. They thought there were five planets and didn’t believe that humans came to Earth from Nibiru. Astronomers have pointed out that an orbit like the one Sitchin proposed for Nibiru is impossible. No celestial body could keep a stable orbit that passes it through the inner solar system every 3,600 years and is beyond Pluto for the rest of the time.
Despite this, Sitchin's books have been translated into twenty-five languages and sold millions of copies internationally. Many people who believe that doomsday will occur when the Mayan calendar ends in 2012 have adopted Lieder's Nibiru collision theory as the catastrophe that will end life on Earth.
Nibiru and Elenin: Facts
Astronomers haven’t found a planet in the outer solar system that could be Nibiru. Some theorists have called the comet Elenin. This comet will pass closest to Earth in October 2011 and is actually named Nibiru. Scientists say Elenin will come no closer than one hundred times farther than the distance between the Earth and the moon.
Morrison wrote that the fact is that these doomsayers constantly change their speculations. Some of them blame the comet for natural disasters. Internet rumors about Elenin began spreading earlier in 2011. Its approach was blamed for shifting the Earth's axis by 3 degrees in February, bringing on the Chilean earthquake. In March, it shifted the pole more, activating the Japanese quakes.
He stated that, by ignoring plate tectonics as the true cause of earthquakes, doomsayers suggested the comet exerted strong electromagnetic or gravitational effects on Earth. When scientists said the comet is a three mile wide mass of ice with no magnetic field and that it won't pass very close to Earth and that plate tectonics, not comets, produce earthquakes, rumors spread that NASA was covering up information about Elenin.
Morrison asserted that the ordinary nature of this comet has a part in some of the theories. People, who are convinced that the comet caused the earthquakes, believe that Elenin isn’t a comet, but is a more massive, dangerous, celestial body. Some theorists began hypothesizing that the comet is a planet, Nibiru in disguise or a huge brown dwarf star.
Elenin is a typical comet with a nucleus and a long tail consisting of vaporizing ice, dust and carbon and silicon based compounds. If it were a brown dwarf star, it wouldn’t have a nucleus or tail. Gas can’t escape from an object with significant gravity. If it were massive, there would be a gravitational influence on the orbits of other planets, especially Mars and Earth; however there is no change in their orbits. A brown dwarf star would have been easily detected in previous astronomical surveys.
Nibiru and Elenin: Astronomer’s Conclusions and Advice
Morrison stated that the fact that the comet isn't headed our way is overlooked by most doomsday theorists. Others aver its path will change. There are some websites that propose the comet is accompanied by an enormous UFO that controls its orbit.
Morrison stated that, because the Nibiru theories are so preposterous, he wonders if the purveyors of Nibiru tapes, books and survival kits believe them. He thinks they’re purposely taking advantage of people who aren't able to distinguish reliable sources from false ones. It makes him feel very angry that children are targeted.
He offered some advice to those who are worried about looming planetary or comet collisions. If a story is genuine, it‘s likely to be in the normal news media, not just posted on websites. As Sagan suggested, please use your toolkits.
Jill Stefko - I'd rather deal with the paranormal than human abnormal - having dealt extensively with both.
