The Science of Conspiracy Theories

Nibiru, the Planet X conspiracy

Nibiru, the Planet X conspiracy

I'm fascinated by this idea because it's like science fiction. This idea came from a book, 'The Twelfth Planet', by Zecharia Sitchen. This alleged planet is the home of extraterrestrials known as the Anunnaki (you see this name often). The reason why we can't see this planet is that it obits the sun every 3,600 years. The conspiracy comes from the idea that NASA knows about but is covering it up.

This is another ancient alien idea where the Anunnaki have something to do with human progress, and that when the planet returns to near the Earth, the aliens will check up on us. The exact date for this happen is not specified. Some say it will be in 2160.

I was surprised to discover that Percival Lowell, the wealthy Bostonian who founded the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff, Arizona, was a proponent of a planet X beyond Neptune based on the unusual orbit of Uranus (Uranus was deviating from its predicted orbit). Actually, his Planet X turned out to be Pluto. Some people thought that a dwarf star companion to our Sun, named Nemesis, is the star that Planet X is orbiting. Some astronomers proposed that a gas giant, Tyche, was responsible for strange comet orbits. However, there are plenty of objects out in the Kuiper belt that could account for this.

As it turns out, this Planet X search gave birth to many pulp science fiction books and movies. For example: 'The Man from Planet X' in 1951.

Some people believed that Pluto was Planet X, but that idea was soon abandoned. However, the search for Planet X continued, and some people think that it will collide with Earth.
Of course, NASA has been searching for trans-Neptunian planets for some time. Recently, they have searched using IRAS, the infrared Astronomical Satellite, in the 1980's and the Two-Micron All-Sky Survey, 2MASS.
Neither of these found a Planet X. Later astronomical searches for possible new gas giants have come up empty.

This Planet X has been blamed for Noah's flood and how the Jew's Exodus from Egypt was possible. Supposedly, President Reagan was informed of the existence of Nibiru (the planet of the crossing) and that his 'Star Wars' offensive was being considered to deal with it. The problem with this is that it was supposed to happen in 2012 because the Mayan calendar ended.

This conspiracy theory doesn't seem to be anywhere near going away. People are blaming global warming, wars, volcanic activity, and storms and just about everything else on this so-called Planet X return. To me this is just another end time idea that's essentially a hoax. However, there are a number of good science fiction plot ideas in it.

Thanks for reading.