Should i worry about nibiru

Because no giant, rogue planet has been found in the outer solar system to play the role of Nibiru, some conspiracy theorists have decided that a small comet called Elenin, which will pass nearest Earth in October , is actually Nibiru.

Even then, though, scientists say Elenin will come no closer than times farther than the distance from Earth to the moon. It has become a catchword for almost any cosmic catastrophe.

Internet rumors about Elenin began spreading earlier this year. Morrison offered some advice to those who are interested in astronomy or are worried about impending collisions. But there is no simple way to distinguish truth from lies.

The Nibiru conspiracies are so nonsensical that Morrison wonders whether even their purveyors believe them. One popular contender was Nibiru, a supposed planet that some claimed would collide with Earth at the end of that year. But despite the buzz, there's no scientific evidence supporting the alleged planet's existence — and, of course, our planet survived without absorbing a massive impact. Nibiru has been linked to NASA by various bloggers. Because of this claimed connection, space agency officials put out a statement saying that no big planet was coming to destroy Earth in What follows below is the true science and history of this supposed rogue planet, with reference to a real object, Comet Elenin, that somehow got mixed up in the whole mess.

And we'll also talk about another hypothetical world that may actually exist in the far outer system — Planet Nine. The story began in , when Zecharia Sitchin wrote "The Twelfth Planet," a book which used Stitchin's own unique translation of Sumerian cuneiform to identify a planet, Nibiru, orbiting the sun every 3, years.

Several years later, Nancy Lieder, a self-described psychic, announced that the aliens she claimed to channel had warned her this planet would collide with Earth in After a collision-free year, the date was moved back to , where it was linked to the close of the Mayan long-count period. When Comet Elenin appeared in , many were concerned that it was the mysterious planet in disguise, despite the fact that planets and comets appear very different under a telescope. A comet has a gas atmosphere, called a coma, and a tail, while a planet does not.

But instead of slamming into the Earth, the comet strayed too close to the sun and broke into pieces. The leftover fragments will continue on their path to the outer solar system for the next 12, years, still bits of comet and not a more cohesive planet. Proponents of the fictitious planet note that, in , a scientific paper was published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters which discussed several infrared sources with "no counterparts" that turned up in a survey of the sky.

Such surveys are common in astronomy and usually involve follow-ups that individually detail the more interesting sources. In the follow-up of the survey, most of the sources turned out to be distant galaxies. None were identified as planets. Read This Next Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London. Animals Wild Cities Wild parakeets have taken a liking to London Love them or hate them, there's no denying their growing numbers have added an explosion of color to the city's streets.

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