Nibiru

Nibiru (sometimes misspelled as "Niburu") is, according to the pseudoscientific ideas of Zecharia Sitchin, the name of a "twelfth planet"[note 1] in the Solar System with a highly eccentric 3,600-year orbit that periodically comes close to the Earth, causing cataclysms. Sitchin based his claims on creative (mis)translations of ancient Sumerian texts and on no-less-creative interpretation of ancient Sumerian images.

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This article focuses on Zecharia Sitchin's claims. For the other claims, see Planet X.

The word Nibiru does in fact refer to a planet known to the ancient Sumerians. This planet is more commonly known as Jupiter, and is not expected to collide with the earth anytime soon.

Planet recycling

After Nancy Lieder's Planet X fiasco in 2003, hers and Sitchin's imaginary planets became conflated and were peddled by various individuals as a cause for a 2012 apocalypse. It totally happened that time; remember when everyone died? Later, David Meade recycled Sitchin's "apocalypse" with a prediction that Planet X/Nibiru would collide with Earth on September 23 using as proof a rare (actually not so rare, as it has happened several times before) conjunction between the Sun, the Moon, and several planets and the interpretationFile:Wikipedia's W.svg of a passage of the Book of Revelation, later moved to October 2017[1][2] with the same result[note 2].

NASA states, “There is no credible evidence whatever for the existence of Niburu. There are no pictures, there’s no tracking, there’s no astronomical observations,” Dr. David Morrison of NASA said, “So there really isn’t any evidence here to counter.” and added a planet so close would be “easily visible to the naked eye,” proving further that it does not exist.[3]

Problems with the idea

See also Brown dwarf

That's no moon planet

A planet is a big thing that can be seen from very far away, even if its albedoFile:Wikipedia's W.svg was very low[note 3] to the point of it being as pitch black as TrES-2bFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, the darkest planet known to date, since everything that is not at absolute zero (in other words, pretty much everything) emits some sort of radiation it would already have been detected on all-sky infrared surveys -not to mention that gravitational effects, especially of big, Neptune-sized or larger bodies would be quite visible, or that proof of rogue planets roaming across the Solar System would have been detected on the orbital parameters of Solar System bodies, as their gravity would have affected the orbits of the latter[4].

Sure, someone may say that NASA, the NWO, or whatever are hiding the results of said surveys. While it's true that they're not made immediately available to the public, so scientists in charge of those studies can analyze the results and be the first ones to report what may have been found there, they're released sooner or later on astronomical databases that anyone can access as SIMBAD[note 4]. Not to mention the many professional observatories located in countries outside US, and especially the whole lot of amateur astronomers that explore the sky looking for asteroids, (super)novae, comets etc., often equipped with gear professionals would envy, and who being scattered all over the world are far away from NASA's evil clutches especially on this world with Internet and instant communications. Even if it came at a highly inclined angle respect to the eclipticFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, where nobody expect those things to be, it would be caught sooner or later[5].

A planet cannot be seen from just a small location of Earth (say, the South Pole), as even polar constellations can be seen from large areas of the planet (a Flat Earth would be another thing). Plus, the "it's coming from the opposite side of the Sun" excuse, while it can work for small Solar System objects as nearby asteroids it cannot work for large bodies coming from very far away as said planet, as if one applies the Kepler's lawsFile:Wikipedia's W.svg using Nibiru's given orbital period (3,600 years) finds that it would move so slowly that the part of the sky opposite to the Sun would be visible first just after dawn and later all the night, even if it was very close to us (no, a geocentric model does not work here too)[6], unless it was a body that did not obey the laws of physics.

Remember also that Earth is a very small target compared to the immensity of the Solar System. While a rogue, planet-sized, body could mess up its orbit (something very bad for our health) if it came close enough, the possibilities of it colliding with our planet are very small.

Nibiru's orbit has a very big issue: namely that an orbit so eccentric is unstable due to gravitational perturbations of the four giant planets of the Solar System, and within a few million years it would have either been expelled of the Solar System or would have crashed into either any other planet or into the very Sun, and was it a brown dwarf instead, it would have left a huge mess behind[5].

Some claimed "images" of Nibiru are actually pictures of distant bodies (lots of light-years away) as CW Leonis or V838 MonocerotisFile:Wikipedia's W.svg' outburst, which should give a hint about the knowledge of astronomy of the claimants and/or their honesty. Same for those who claim to have photographed or recorded it in video very close to the Sun, but that the only thing they caught was lens flare, as in the image of above[note 5]. Other cranks have confounded it with Planet NineFile:Wikipedia's W.svg ignoring that its existence is entirely hypothetical as of the time of this writing, and even if it was real it's estimated that it would never approach to the Sun closer than roughly six times the Sun-Neptune distance.

Oh, and the less is said of the use of what looks like a highly symbolic report of a very bad trip and/or Anti-Roman propaganda disguised that way written 2,000 years ago as source for claims the better.

gollark: Oops.
gollark: ++remind 1ftn-1m🐝
gollark: It doesn't use INTEGERS, it uses TIME DELTAS.
gollark: ++remind 10m <@!290323543558717441> yes.
gollark: WRONG.

See also

Notes
  1. Sitchin published his ideas before the "demotion" of Pluto.
  2. Epic Fail four times (scroll down to 2017 and for a bonus check also 2018)[citation NOT needed]
  3. A black hole may be almost invisible, but its gravitational effects on other Solar System bodies would be quite visible
  4. Granted, they're databases thought for professional astronomers and your typical science-hater Fundie/crank will be as lost there as a turtle at a Formula 1 race
  5. YouTube is awash with videos of that kind

References
  1. Will the mysterious shadow planet Nibiru obliterate Earth in October? No. by Ben Guarino (January 5 at 5:25 AM) Washington Post.
  2. Planet X — The 2017 Arrival by David Meade (2016) Ebookit.com. ISBN 1456626922.
  3. Armageddon Predicted by Christian Numerologist Delayed (For Second Time)
  4. Limits on the closest encounter with any other star since the formation of our solar system. Neptune's orbit has an eccentricity so low that it's almost a circle and it as well as the ones of the outer planets is very little inclined respect to the plane of the Solar System, putting strict limits to the visits of rogue planets wandering across the Solar System, not to mention stars
  5. Debunked: Nibiru will hit Earth on [Insert Date here]
  6. Nibiru, Kepler, and some basics on orbits. Not to mention the existence of telescopes as SOHOFile:Wikipedia's W.svg, that can see what's almost just behind the Sun
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