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The Nibiru cataclysm is a supposed disastrous encounter between Earth and a large planetary object (either a collision or a near-miss) that certain groups believed would take place in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Nibiru or Planet X.
Will planet Nibiru crash into Earth? A scientist explains - BBC Science Focus Magazine.
- Overview
- The Fault in Our Stars?
- Tomorrow, Tomorrow …
No matter how you interpret the latest cosmic signs, history tells us people don’t have the best track record at predicting the apocalypse.
Editor’s Note: A version of this article was originally published before the predicted apocalypse on September 23, 2017.
As viral videos and various tabloids tell it, April 23, 2018, will mark the end of an age. Depending on your taste, the date will either bring forth a collision between Earth and a rogue planet or a world-changing celestial alignment that heralds the End of Days.
A word of historical and scientific advice: Don't cancel your plans for May.
Humans are once again talking about our collective doom thanks to fast-burning “news” trends fanned by Google and the fringe predictions of self-published author David Meade. Last autumn, Meade’s disputed numerology predicted that Earth would encounter a (hypothetical) rogue planet called Nibiru on September 23, 2017.
September 23 came and went without incident, so Meade shifted his prediction to October 2017—and then again adjusted his timetable to November 2017. Now, Meade claims that he has finally ironed out the wrinkles in his vision of the end times. Nibiru (sometimes called Planet X) is supposed to appear in the sky on April 23 and pass by Earth in October, triggering volcanoes of apocalyptic proportions.
To support his claims, Meade points to an alignment of several planets, the sun and moon, and the constellations Virgo and Leo due to happen in April, which he says will fulfill a prophecy in the Book of Revelations.
Previously, an evangelical Christian publication called Unsealed had argued that the Book of Revelations foretold a similar alignment for September 23, 2017. The publication claimed that the alignment heralded the era leading up to the Rapture, the moment when many Christians believe the devout will vanish from Earth to join Jesus in a new paradise.
The cosmic alignments in question do actually happen. But the significance of the astronomy is debatable. The Biblical sign depends on the number of stars in play, and even astronomers don’t agree how many stars, for instance, officially make up the constellation Leo. Some star charts count nine, while others—including National Geographic's star atlas—count ten.
For that matter, how unique is the alignment? Again, the details are murky: For a couple of days in September or October every year, the moon passes near its supposedly foretold position.
In an earlier interview, the 2017 alignment didn’t strike Colgate University emeritus professor Anthony Aveni as particularly unusual. Aveni, who specializes in the study of astronomical practices in the ancient world, adds that Virgo wasn’t incorporated into Hebrew astronomy until after the New Testament was written.
But Aveni emphasized that he’s not interested debunking apocalyptic claims. Instead, he wants to understand their cultural roots. For instance, U.S. religious and cultural traditions are steeped with millenarianism, which focuses on prophecies and apocalypses.
Ultimately, all efforts to decode the universe for signs of foretold doom come down to interpretation. And for millennia, humans haven't shown an accurate knack for it, as National Geographic reported in 2009:
•In 65 A.D., the Roman philosopher Seneca warned that the planet would “burn in [a] universal fire.” While Vesuvius buried Pompeii in lava and ash 14 years later, the end wasn't exactly nigh for the entire planet.
•Many 17th-century Christian Europeans worried that the world would end in 1666, a year containing the ominous Number of the Beast, described in the Book of Revelation.
•The 1910 arrival of Halley's comet whipped some citizens of Rome into such a frenzy, they stockpiled oxygen tanks, fearful that the comet's tail would poison Earth's atmosphere. (Also find out why Newton believed a comet caused Noah’s flood.)
•On May 5, 2000, the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn aligned in the sky—a conjunction that some authors claimed would bring about earthquakes, volcanoes, and a sudden onslaught of melting ice. It didn’t.
•Since 2008, the Large Hadron Collider has fixated conspiracy theorists with fears that the particle collider would spawn a world-ending black hole. Billions of particle collisions later, the world remains safely uneaten.
Jul 5, 2011 · Conspiracy theorists who believe a rogue planet called Nibiru will soon crash into Earth think that a small comet, Elenin, is the doomsday-bringing planet in disguise.
- Nibiru was first introduced by Russian-American author Zechariah Sitchin. A self-proclaimed expert in Sumerian mythology, Sitchin gleaned references to a planet called Nibiru from ancient Sumerian writings.
- Sitchin claimed that extraterrestrial beings lived on Nibiru. Sitchin said that extraterrestrial beings, known as “ancient astronauts,” visited Earth and contacted humans hundreds of thousands of years ago, radically reorienting the trajectory of human progress.
- Nancy Lieder brought Nibiru back into the public eye in 1995. Nancy Lieder, a self-described alien contactee and Wisconsin native, claimed that a group of extraterrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system abducted her as a child and planted a communication device in her brain.
- Lieder—or, the Zetas—pegged the collision date as May 15, 2003. The power of this collision, Lieder claimed, would halt the Earth’s rotation for precisely 5.9 days and radically shift its poles, resulting in the disruption of its magnetic core and displacement of its crust.
Rogue Planet Headed for Earth. For the past decade there have been reports of a rogue object (Planet X, or Nibiru, or Hercubolus, or even Comet Elenin) that will collide with Earth in December 2012. These claims are not true.
Sep 20, 2017 · If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked...
