Also known as The Twelfth Planet or Planet X,
some are warning that the wandering body of Nibiru
is quickly nearing the Earth - and could cause
global devastation. Should you worry?
In 1976, the late Zecharia Sitchin stirred up
a great deal of controversy with the publication
of his book, The Twelfth Planet. In this and
subsequent books, Sitchin presented his literal
translations of ancient Sumerian texts which
told an incredible story about the origins of
humankind on planet Earth - a story far different
and much more fantastic than what we all learned
in school.
The ancient cuneiform texts -- some of the earliest
known writing, dating back some 6,000 years --
told the story of a race of beings called the
Anunnaki. The Anunnaki came to Earth from a planet
in our solar system called Nibiru, according
to the Sumerians via Sitchin. If you've never
heard of it, that's because mainstream science
does not recognize Nibiru as one of the planets
that revolves around our Sun. Yet it is there,
claims Sitchin, and its presence holds great
importance not only for humankind's past, but
our future as well.
Nibiru's orbit around the Sun is highly elliptical,
according to Sitchin's books, taking it out beyond
the orbit of Pluto at its farthest point and
bringing it as close to the Sun as the far side
of the asteroid belt (a ring of asteroids that
is known to occupy a band of space between the
orbits of Mars and Jupiter). It takes Nibiru
3,600 years to complete one orbital journey,
and it was last in this vicinity around 160 B.C.E.
As you can imagine, the gravitational effects
of a sizable planet moving close to the inner
solar system, as it is claimed for Nibiru, could
wreak havoc on the orbits of other planets, disrupt
the asteroid belt and spell big trouble for planet
Earth.
Well, prepare for yet another possible apocalypse
because, they say, Nibiru is once again heading
this way - and will be here soon.
A BIT OF HISTORY
The story of the Anunnaki is told in Sitchin's
many books and is digested, augmented and speculated
about in dozens of websites. But the tale is
essentially this: About 450,000 years ago, Alalu,
the deposed ruler of the Anunnaki on Nibiru,
escaped the planet on a spaceship and found refuge
on Earth. He discovered that Earth had plenty
of gold, which Nibiru needed to protect its diminishing
atmosphere. They began to mine Earth's gold,
and there were a lot of political battles among
the Anunnaki for power.
Then around 300,000 years or so ago, the Anunnaki
decided to create a race of workers by genetically
manipulating the primates on the planet. The
result was homo sapiens - us. Eventually, rulership
of the Earth was handed over to humans and the
Anunnaki left, at least for the time being. Sitchin
ties all this - and much more - into the stories
of the first books of the Bible and the histories
of other ancient cultures, especially Egyptian.
It's an astonishing story, to say the least.
Most historians, anthropologists and archeologists
consider it all Sumerian myth, of course. But
Sitchin's work has created a diehard cadre of
believers and researchers who take the story
at face value. And some of them, whose ideas
are getting widespread attention thanks to the
Internet, contend that the return of Nibiru is
close at hand - possibly as soon as somewhere
between now and 2013!
WHERE IS NIBIRU AND WHEN WILL IT ARRIVE?
Even mainstream astronomers have long speculated
that there may be an unknown planet - a Planet
X - somewhere out beyond the orbit of Pluto that
would account for the anomalies they were detecting
in the orbits of Neptune and Uranus. Some unseen
body seems to be tugging at them. The finding
was reported in the June 19, 1982 edition of
the New York Times:
Something out there beyond the furthest reaches
of the known solar system is tugging at Uranus
and Neptune. A gravitational force keeps perturbing
the two giant planets, causing irregularities
in their orbits. The force suggests a presence
far away and unseen, a large object, the long-sought
Planet X. Astronomers are so certain of this
planet's existence that they have already named
it "Planet X - the 10th Planet."
The anomalous body was first spotted in 1983
by IRAS (Infrared Astronomical Satellite), according
to news stories. The Washington Post reported: "A
heavenly body possibly as large as the giant
planet Jupiter and possibly so close to Earth
that it would be part of this solar system has
been found in the direction of the constellation
Orion by an orbiting telescope aboard the U.S.
infrared astronomical satellite. So mysterious
is the object that astronomers do not know if
it is a planet, a giant comet, a nearby 'protostar'
that never got hot enough to become a star, a
distant galaxy so young that it is still in the
process of forming its first stars or a galaxy
so shrouded in dust that none of the light cast
by its stars ever gets through."
Nibiru supporters contend that IRAS has, in
fact, spotted the wandering planet.
"A Mystery Revolves Around the Sun," an
article posted by MSNBC on October 7, 1999 said: "Two
teams of researchers have proposed the existence
of an unseen planet or a failed star circling
the sun at a distance of more than 2 trillion
miles, far beyond the orbits of the nine known
planets... Planetary scientist at Britain's Open
University, speculates that the object could
be a planet larger than Jupiter." And in
December, 2000, SpaceDaily reported on "Another
Candidate For 'Planet X' Spotted."
Another article and photo appeared in Discovery
News: "Large Object Discovered Orbiting
Sun." The article, published in July, 2001,
says, "The discovery of a large reddish
chunk of something orbiting in Pluto's neighborhood
has re-ignited the idea that there may be more
than nine planets in the solar system." Naming
it 2001 KX76. the discoverers estimate that it
is smaller than our Moon and might have an elongated
orbit, but they gave no indication that it was
heading this way.
Mark Hazelwood, who has a large website warning
about the impending arrival of Nibiru and how
we should prepare for it, suggests that all of
these news stories lend credence to the existence
of the Anunnaki's Nibiru (although none of the
articles said the celestial body was heading
toward Earth).
Andy Lloyd isn't as pessimistic - or at least
his calculations are different. Since he speculates
that Nibiru was actually the Star of Bethlehem
seen about 2,000 years ago, "the problem
faced by humanity as Nibiru again enters the
planetary zone will fall to our descendants 50
generations hence."
There is even speculation that the Vatican is
tracking the position of Niburu. This video quotes
Father Malachi Martin being interviewed by Art
Bell as saying that the Vatican hierarchy, through
research at its astronomical observatory, is
monitoring the approach of something that could
be "of great import" in the coming
years.
WHAT WILL BE THE EFFECTS ON EARTH?
As stated before, the gravitational pull of
a planet entering the inner solar system would
have profound effects on the other orbiting bodies,
including Earth. In fact, the Anunnaki story
says that a previous appearance of Nibiru was
responsible for the "Great Flood" recorded
in Genesis, in which nearly all life on our planet
was extinguished (but saved, thanks to Noah).
Going even further back, some researchers into
this topic suspect that Nibiru once even collided
with Earth millions of years ago, creating the
asteroid belt and resulting in the enormous gouges
in our planet that the oceans now fill.
Mark Hazelwood and others say that Earth is
in for some massive and catastrophic changes
as Nibiru approaches. Floods, earthquakes, volcanic
eruptions, a pole shift and other natural disasters
will be so severe, Hazelwood says, that "only
a few hundred million people will survive." Another
site says the gravitational pull of Nibiru might
even stop the Earth's rotation for three days,
citing the "three days of darkness" predicted
in the Bible.
Some of the Nibiru researchers also cite the
prophecies of Edgar Cayce who predicted that
we would soon suffer monumental Earth changes
and a pole shift, even though he did not attribute
them to anything as specific as a visiting planet.
And, of course, the much-analyzed Mayan calendar
is said to set the "end of world" in
December, 2012.
Astronomers and other scientists who would seem
to be in a position to know such things have
made no announcements about the approach of any
planet-sized body. Apparently, they have not
detected anything of the kind. Those who believe
Nibiru is approaching, however, say that scientists
do know all about it and are just covering it
up.
