The possible discovery of a ninth planet of immense size and an extremely elongated orbit lurking in the shadows of our solar system has led many people to believe that the old Planet X myths are real and a mass extinction event is nigh.
Mike Brown, Professor of Planetary Astronomy at the California Institute of Technology is also known by another name — “The man who killed Pluto.” You see, Mike is the guy who’s largely responsible for Pluto losing its planet status and reducing our solar system to eight planets.
Why Mike had to murder poor old Pluto is anybody’s guess, but every cloud has a silver lining, and Mike, the guy who once wrote a book titled How I Killed Pluto And Why It Had It Coming and once said that no new planets would ever be discovered, has now changed his tune and claimed to have found evidence of a ninth planet in the solar system.
The Telegraph reports that Planet Nine is 10 times the mass of Earth and orbits the Sun slowly. So slowly, in fact, that it takes between 10,000 and 20,000 years to do a complete lap.
Planet Nine is such a whopper that experts have tagged it “the most planety planet of the solar system.”
Mike Brown is very excited about the possible existence of the ninth planet and believes everything he thought he previously knew about how many planets spin their thing in this solar system of ours was wrong.
“In 2006, when the International Astronomical Union codified what we mean when we say the word ‘planet,’ I was quoted multiple times saying something like, ‘That’s it. That’s the end of planets. We get eight in this solar system and that will have to be enough. Since 1845, there have been no new ones to discover.’
“I was wrong. The one thing we know for sure about Planet Nine is that it is dominating the outer edge of the solar system. That is enough to make it a planet by anyone’s calculation.
“For the first time in over 150 years, there is solid evidence that the solar system’s planetary census is incomplete.”
Now, whatever way you slice it, the possible discovery of a ninth planet is a big deal, but is it necessarily good for little old Earth? Probably not if you listen to what a lot of people used to say about the ninth planet, also known as Planet X.
Planet X, also known as Nibiru or Marduk, is supposedly the 10th planet in our solar system and the one which was supposed to destroy Earth on December 2, 2012. The good news is it didn’t happen. So let’s find out exactly why the ninth planet’s got such a bad rep.
Imagine a planet whose very proximity could trigger tsunamis, cause earthquakes to erupt, and make volcanoes go all volatile and violent on us. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg, baby! Some say if the “demon planet” got too close to the Earth, it might even push us into the sun, stop the blue planet spinning, or even strip away our old mother’s crust like a monkey peeling a banana.
All of the aforementioned apocalyptic scenarios are part of planet Nibiru’s “X Factor,” and some say it’s due to arrive sometime in the future and spoil our party. Planet Nine, we’re talking about you! But just how much scientific fact is there to support these wild-eyed and universally crazy claims?
Planet X, Nibiru, Marduk, Tranpluto, Vulcan, The Ottawa Object, the ninth planet — call it what you will. The planet, which lies on the outer limits and has long been said to dwarf the Earth many times over, has one unifying factor — it’s destructive.
Yet, although the existence of the other eight planets in our solar system (Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune) have been proven beyond all reasonable doubt, the jury is still out on Planet X or the ninth planet.
Who started the Chinese whispers about this killer planet? The Sumerians, that’s who! A tablet of clay, named the Berlin Seal, was found in the Middle East some time ago with something inscribed upon it which looked like a solar system.
The only trouble is there were 11 planets on the centuries old lump of clay instead of eight — or nine if you include little Pluto. Many speculated the 10th planet could be the moon but that left the barn doors open for widespread speculation about what the eleventh could be?
That is, until people started putting two and two together and coming up with Nibiru, also known as Planet X, and once you strip the Moon and Pluto of their planetary belts, the ninth planet.
The only problem with any theory based upon the Berlin Seal being an accurate map in regard to our Solar System is, at the end of the day, it’s just a pretty lump of clay that’s full of errors. Saturn has no rings for a kick-off. Need I go on?
Additionally, ancient civilizations loved to draw and paint pretty pictures, and the “map” could just as easily be Venus surrounded by stars.
The bottom line is this: If you research enough literature from ancient civilizations you can probably prove that in favorable conditions, pigs can fly. Yet people with a little too much time on their hands never tire of pointing to the ancient Sumerians as solid proof that Planet X exists.
Never mind that ancient cultures weren’t capable of installing a fully functioning plumbing system and wouldn’t have a clue how to operate an iPhone, certain types that favor sandals and wispy beards will tell you earnestly that the Sumerians were in contact with a bunch of enlightened extraterrestrials and, as such, knew a thing or two about a thing or two. Poppycock!
In the Sumerian tale of creation, the Earth was spat into creation after a particularly violent tussle between two gods. Guess what their names were? Tiamat and Nibiru! To the Sumerians, Nibiru was a god, not a planet, and Nibiru was their word for “ferry boat.” Nibiru was also the Babylonian word for Jupiter.
The Chinese and Greek cultures were much more interested and knew a lot more about cosmology than the Sumerian farmers, and they never mentioned a 10th planet. In fact, the Sumerians even believed the earth was a flat disc, so go figure.
Much like the possible ninth planet, if Planet X has one thing, it has a big orbit. So big, physics would seem to suggest that it is actually impossible for it to exist at all.
To put it into context, the Earth does a complete orbit of the Sun every 365 days. Nibiru, on the other hand, apparently takes 3,600 years. And what do you think it does once it gets here? It speeds up, says hello to the Sun, massively disrupts everything it encounters, and goes on its merry way, leaving in its wake a trail of terrible destruction as the earth dies bleeding.
But not to worry, folks. Just like apples cannot fall upwards, a planet with such a huge orbit would soon spiral into deep space, or alternately, it would reduce its orbit dramatically and live in peace with the other eight planets. The universe may be a big place but it has laws you know.
December 21, 2012, was previously earmarked as the earth’s date with the ninth planet. It was apparently the day when Planet X would come calling and send us spiraling into an abyss without equal.
However, if past dates with our nemesis have been anything to go by, I wouldn’t hold your breath waiting for an exciting and eventual night with the ninth planet anytime soon. You see, naughty Nibiru has a habit of not showing up for the big occasions.
Take the spring of 2003, for example. Fervent believers in Planet X’s existence were bug-eyed with excitement and perspiring with panic that the “bull daddy” was going to make an appearance and knock us for six. He didn’t. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t exist — he might just have stopped off at an intergalactic McDonald’s to devour a galaxy or two before deciding our ultimate fate.
To be fair, it’s not just conspiracy theorists, as many professional astronomers throughout history were convinced that a ninth planet existed.
Since the early part of the 19th century, stargazers were haunted by a nagging mystery regarding the orbits of the outer planets. Uranus, Neptune, and certain asteroids appeared to be under the influence of the pull of an enormous and unidentified planet.
Percival Lowell, the man responsible for studying the “canals” on Mars, gave the mysterious planet a name, and its name was “X.” Astronomers remained convinced that Planet X in all probability did exist, and for almost 150 years, nothing appeared to change their mind. However, in the last two decades of the 20th century, they suddenly appeared to be a little bashful, red-faced, and apologetic about their previous assumptions.
It appeared that there was no strange force pulling hard on Uranus and Neptune — it was simply that the stargazers had failed to properly identify and calculate the correct orbit of the outer planets. Whoops!
Modern science does seem to suggest that around about four to five billion years ago, something big and bad did slam into our planet and knock the stuffing out of it. So great was the collision that it caused the Earth to split, and from the leftover debris, the moon was formed.
The theory is called giant impact hypothesis. However, there was no one on earth at the time to write about the event, let alone blame it on the ninth planet. History proves that the Earth is periodically struck by disaster, but it doesn’t happen once every 3,600 years, and the same heavenly culprit is not always to blame.
The truth about the ninth planet is out there somewhere, and as always, it’s universal, dude.
[Photo by Dr. Philip James/AP]