故事虚构的行星Nibiru和预测世界末日在2012年12月已在互联网上蓬勃发展。现在（ 2009年6月）超过175本书列出在Amazon.com处理2012年世界末日。随着这一骗局的蔓延，有更多的灾情正在建议。 “卖出的太空生物学”已收到近千问题Nibiru和2012年，与200多个答案张贴。许多新的问题是类似已经回答。下面列出了最流行的“ 20个问题”组织的一个合乎逻辑的继承，并回答了一些细节。
除了我的反应，也有一些其他的好资源
*尼尔日Grassse泰森张贴一个不错的视频剪辑的Nibiru 2012年问题。
*维基百科有几个有用的条目。开始Nibiru碰撞，然后看看Nibiru神话和Nibiru Sitchin ） 。又翔实是进入2012年世界末日预言。
*详细说明来源的星球的X / Nibiru邪教看到讨论菲尔辫子他Badastronomy网站。
大卫莫里森
乃资深科学家
2009年6月1日
1 。什么是原产地的预测，世界将在2012年12月？
故事开始与声称Nibiru ，产生了地球的苏美尔人发现，是朝向地球。 Zecharia Sitchin ，谁写科幻小说中的古代美索不达米亚的苏美尔文明中称，几本书（例如，第十二届星球，发表于1976年） ，他已发现并翻译苏梅利亚文件确定行星Nibiru ，绕太阳每三千六百年。这些苏美尔神话故事包括“古代宇航员”参访地球文明的外国人称为Anunnaki 。然后南希之歌，一个自我申报的精神，她是谁索赔窜外国人，她的网站上写道Zetatalk的居民说，一个虚构的行星围绕恒星的Zeta Reticuli警告她说，地球正处于危险之中行星X或Nibiru 。这场灾难的最初预测2003年5月，但没有发生任何事情时，世界末日的日期提前到2012年12月。只在最近这两个寓言联系在一起的结尾玛雅长期伯爵在 冬至在2012年-因此预言世界末日的日期2012年12月21日。
2 。在苏美尔人的第一个伟大的文明，他们提出了许多正确的天文预测，包括存在的行星的天王星，海王星和冥王星。因此，我们为什么不能相信他们的预测Nibiru ？
Nibiru是一个名字在巴比伦占星术有时与神马尔杜克。 Nibiru显示为未成年人的性质在巴比伦建立诗Enuma Elish记录在图书馆阿苏尔巴尼帕，亚述国王（公元前668-627 ） 。苏美尔繁荣更早，从23世纪到公元前17世纪。的主张， Nibiru是一颗行星，是已知的苏美尔人是矛盾的学者谁（不像Zecharia Sitchin ）研究和翻译的书面记录古代美索不达米亚。苏美尔确实是一个伟大的文明，重要的是发展农业，水资源管理，城市生活，尤其是写作。然而，他们很少留下记录处 理天文学。当然，他们不知道的存在天王星，海王星和冥王星。他们还没有理解是，行星绕太阳，一个想法，成功地开发了古希腊两千年结束后，苏美尔。苏美尔人 声称，有先进的天文学，或者他们甚至有一个名为Nibiru上帝，是产品的Sitchin的想象力。
3 。你怎么能否认存在Nibiru发现它时，美国航天局于1983年，这个故事出现在各大报章刊登？在那个时候你称之为行星X ，并后来被任命为齐娜或厄里斯。
红外天文卫星（美国航天局的红外天文卫星，进行了一次巡天10个月于1983年）发现了许多红外光源，但它们都不是Nibiru或行星X或任何其 他物体在太阳系外围。这是一个很好的讨论，由加州理工学院的发现（ spider.ipac.caltech.edu /工作人员/ tchester /红外天文卫星/ no_tenth_planet_yet.html ） 。简单地说，红外天文卫星编目350,000红外光源和最初许多这些来源不明（这是这一点，当然，使这种调查） 。所有这些意见已被后来的跟进研究，功能更强大的工具都在地面和空间。有关传闻是“第十大行星”爆发后，于1984年科学论文发表在天体物理学杂志通讯， 题为“身份不明的点源的红外天文卫星minisurvey ” ，其中讨论了几个红外源“不对口” 。但是，这些“神秘物体” ，后来发现是遥远星系（除一，这是一个缕的“红外线卷云” ） ，公布于1987年。没有红外天文卫星源都被证明是一颗行星。一个很好的讨论这个问题是整个上找到菲尔辫子的网站（ www.badastronomy.com /坏/辅助/ planetx / science.html ＃的红外天文卫星） 。底线是， Nibiru是一个神话，没有任何事实根据。一个天文学家，持续声称行星是“附近” ，但“看不见”只是平原愚蠢的。
4 。也许我们应该问的星球X或厄里斯，不Nibiru 。为什么美国宇航局保密厄里斯的轨道？
“行星X ”是一个矛盾时，适用于一个真正的对象。这个词已经被用天文学家在过去的一个世纪可能或怀疑对象。一旦对象被发现，这是一个真实姓名，这样做与冥王星和厄 里斯，而这两者都是在一段时间被称为行星十，如果一个新的对象原来是不是真实的，或者不是一个星球，然后您将无法听到了。如果它是真实的，它不是所谓的星 球十
厄里斯是几个矮行星天文学家最近发现了在太阳系外围，它们都在正常的轨道，将永远把他们地球附近。同冥王星一样，厄里斯小于我们的月球。这是非常 遥远，它的轨道永远不会使该技术更加接近超过四十○万点零零零万英里。没有任何秘密的，厄里斯和它的轨道，因为你可以很容易地验证了使用Google或期 待它在维基百科。
5 。你否认，美国航天局建造了南极望远镜（标贯）跟踪Nibiru ？为什么其他人，他们会建立一个望远镜在南极？
有一个天文望远镜在南极，但它不是美国航天局建造的，而不是用来研究Nibiru 。南极望远镜得到了国家科学基金会，这是一个射电望远镜，而不是光学仪器。它不能采取图片或照片。你可以看看它在维基百科上。南极是一个伟大的地方天文红 外和短波广播的意见，而且还具有优势，可以观察到的物体不断的干扰日夜循环。
我要补充一点，就不可能想象一个几何对象中可以看出不仅从南极。即使这是由于南方的地球，它可以看出整个南半球。
6 。有很多照片和视频的Nibiru在互联网上。这难道不是证明它的存在？
绝大多数的照片和录像是在因特网上的一些特征接近太阳（显然支持声称Nibiru一直躲在太阳在过去几年中。 ）这实际上假象太阳内部所造成的思考在镜头，通常被称为镜头光晕。你可以很容易地确定他们的是，他们似乎截然相反的真正太阳能形象，如反映整个中心的形 象。这一点尤其明显，影片，而作为摄像头动作，舞蹈的假象大约总是完全相反的真正形象。类似的镜头耀斑是一个许多不明飞行物在夜间拍摄的照片与强大的光 源，如路灯的框架。我很惊讶的是，人们不承认这一共同照片影。我也很惊讶，这些照片显示一些几乎一样大而亮的太阳（ “第二个太阳” ）一起接受提出的要求的一些相同的网站， Nibiru太微弱待观察，或拍照，除非大型望远镜。
一个广为报道的伸缩照片（ www.greatdreams.com / nibiru – possible.jpg ）显示两种观点的扩大气云远远超出了太阳能系统，这是不动，你可以看到这从一个事实，即星是相同的在这两个图片。阿眼尖的读者，本网站确定这些照片为气体 壳围绕恒星V838周一维基百科有一个不错的写了一个美丽的照片，从哈勃太空望远镜。另一位高中生最初的印象张贴图片的红色斑点是据说的Nibiru 。然后他在他的Photoshop级如何使这样的照片从零开始。
一个视频张贴在2008年夏天在YouTube （ www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDKtkWIx00A ）显示一个人站立在他的厨房里声称的对象之一，发现了美国航天局的X射线望远镜是Nibiru 。他的证据是什么？ ，由于此假彩色X射线图像是由美国航天局发布的蓝色，这一定是附近的一个星球上的海洋。这将是欢闹如果不是用来吓唬人。
7 。你能否解释这样一个事实，即地区（ 5小时五三米-27 ， -6 10 ‘ 58 “ ）已被熏黑了谷歌和微软的天空望远镜？人民表明，这些已被熏黑，因为这些都是统筹下Nibiru位于本。
有几个人问我这个空白矩形在猎户座的谷歌天空，这是一个介绍图像从斯隆数字调查。这不可能是一个“藏身之地”的Nibiru ，因为它是天空的一部分，可以从几乎处处对地球在冬天时的2007-08年的大部分谈论Nibiru开始。这将违背声称Nibiru是躲在太阳或它不仅可 以看到来自南半球。但我也很好奇这个空白的矩形，所以我问朋友谁是在谷歌的资深科学家。他回答说，他“发现缺失的数据，是由于处理错误的图像拼接程序使 用，以显示我们的斯隆调查图像。该小组向我保证在今后的运行通过，这将是固定的！ “
8 。如果政府知道Nibiru ，不会他们保密，以避免恐慌？是不是政府的工作，保持人口放心？
有许多目标的政府，但他们并不包括保持人口自在。我的经验是，有时部分政府这样做正好相反，如经常提到的各种恐怖威胁或警告驾驶意外长假期周末， 这是没有更多的危险比其他任何时间。有悠久的历史联系在一起坏事与政治对手（旧的读者会记得“导弹差距”在1960年选举中，年轻一代将注意到，目前许多 提及谁是或不是使美国免遭恐怖分子） 。此外，社会科学家们指出，我们的许多概念，公众恐慌是好莱坞的产品，而在现实世界中的人有良好的记录，互相帮助，在一定时间的危险。我想大家还认识到， 保持坏消息通常backfires秘密，使问题更糟糕的事实时，终于出来。如属Nibiru ，这些事实将出来确实很快。
即使他们想，政府不能保持Nibiru秘密。如果这是真的，那将是成千上万的跟踪天文学家，业余爱好者以及专业。这些天文学家是遍布世界各地。我知道，天文学界，这些科学家将不会保守秘密，即使命令。你就不能隐藏的星球上以太阳系内部！
9 。为什么玛雅日历说，世界将在2012年年底？我听说，他们已经相当准确的，过去与其他行星的预测。你怎么能肯定你知道超过他们？
日历存在追踪时间的推移，而不是预测未来。玛雅天文学家聪明，他们制定了一个非常复杂的日历。古代日历感兴趣的历史学家，但他们无法匹配的能力， 我们今天知道现在的时间，或精度的日历目前正在使用。主要的一点，然而，就是日历，无论是现代或古老的，无法预测的未来，我们的星球或警告的事情发生在一 个具体的日期，如2012年。
我注意到，我的台历结束更快，在09年12月31日，但我不理解这是一个预测世界末日。这是刚刚开始的新一年。
10 。什么是极地转移理论？是不是地壳做180度旋转的核心在几天之内如果没有时间？这是否有这样做与我们太阳系的星系浸渍下方赤道？
扭转地球的旋转是不可能的。它从来没有发生过，而且永远不会。有缓慢运动的大洲（例如南极洲是在赤道附近数亿年前） ，但这并不要求扭转旋转极。然而，许多灾害的网站拉诱饵和转移来欺骗人民。他们要求之间的关系，轮换和地球磁极，它变幻的磁场发生逆转每四十点○○万年平 均。据我们所知，这种磁性逆转不会造成任何伤害地球上的生命。磁场逆转是非常不可能发生在未来的几千年，反正。但是，他们错误地声称，磁性逆转即将到来（ 2012年） ，这是相同的，或会触发，扭转旋转极点。底线是： （一）旋转方向和磁极是不相关的。 （ b ）没有理由期望扭转磁极任何时候很快，或者有任何不良影响时，它的生命最终发生。 ©突然改变旋转极具有灾难性后果是不可能的。此外，没有这一切都与银河系赤道或任何其他有关路线废话上出现许多阴谋论的网站。
11 。当大多数行星同意在2012年和地球是在银河系中心，我想请问，这是影响地球上的？难道造成极移，如果是的话可能我们期待？
没有任何行星排列在2012年或任何其他时间在未来的几十年。至于地球是在银河系中心，我不知道这句话的手段。如果你指的是银河系，我们是相当深 远的边缘走向这个螺旋星系，大约3万光年的中心。我们的银河系中心圆一个时期的225-250万美元来，始终保持大致相同的距离。关于极移，我也并不知道 这意味着什么。如果这意味着一些突然改变立场的极（即旋转轴地球） ，那是不可能的，正如在回答问题10 。许多网站的讨论是一致的地球与太阳与银河系中心的人马座星座。这种情况下每年12月，没有任何不良后果，也没有理由预期2012年将不同于其他任何一 年。
12 。当太阳和地球上线银河飞机在同一时间与整个被黑色的中心不能导致一些事情发生，这是由于黑洞具有如此强大的引力。
有一个巨大黑洞的中心，我们的银河系，并同任何集中的大规模它施加引力的其它星系。然而，银河中心是非常遥远，大约3万光年，所以微不足道的影响 太阳系或地球。有没有特殊的部队从银河系平面或银河系中心。唯一的一支重要力量的行为是对地球的引力的太阳和月亮。至于影响的银河系平面，没有什么特别的 这个位置。上一次地球在银河系飞机若干万年前。声称，我们将要穿越银河系飞机是不真实的。
13 。我很害怕的是，地球将进入黑暗裂谷的银河。这些措施会带来什么呢？将地球被吞噬？
“黑暗裂谷”是一个受欢迎的名字为广大和弥漫的尘雾
内部机构的银河系，我们认为该区块的星系
中心。整个“银河系对齐”吓唬很疯狂。晚
12月， Sun一直大约的方向中心
银河系看地球，但是那又怎么样呢？很显然，这一结论男子谁试图吓唬你决定使用这些毫无意义的短语的“路线”和“黑暗的裂痕”和“光子带” ，正是因为他们不理解的市民。这是太糟糕了，但是，没有任何法律禁止倒卧在互联网上或其他地方，除非在法庭上。至于安全的地球而言，最重要的威胁是由全球 变暖和生物多样性的丧失，也许有一天从碰撞的小行星或彗星，而不是伪科学索赔约2012年。
14 。我听说地球磁场将在2012年刚刚翻盖时最强烈的太阳风暴水平在历史上是预测发生。这将杀死我们或破坏我们的文明？
近太阳系最大（它们大约每11年） ，有更多的太阳耀斑和日冕物质抛射比太阳附近最低。耀斑和物质抛射是没有危险的人或其他地球上的生命。他们可能会危及宇航员在太空深处，或在月球上，这是 美国航天局必须学会处理，但它不是一个问题，你或我。大爆发会干扰无线电传输，导致显示的明亮的极光（北部和南部灯） ，并损害了一些电子太空中的卫星。今天，许多卫星的目的是处理这个可能性，例如关掉一些更加微妙的集成电路和进入“安全”模式下了几个小时。在极端的情况 下，太阳活动也可以破坏电力传输在地面上，可能导致电力中断，但这是罕见的。
过去太阳能最大发生在2001年，因此，下一个被预测为2012年左右， 11年后。但是，最近太阳能最低是不寻常的，以期几年几乎没有黑子或其他迹象表明，太阳活动，因此，科学家们现在推测，下最大的将是一拖再拖，也许到 2013年。然而，详细的太阳活动周期基本保持难以预测。
你是正确的，地球的磁场保护我们通过建立一个大型区域空间，被称为地球的磁层，其中大部分材料逐出孙被捕或转移，但没有理由期望扭转磁极任何时间很快。这些磁场发生逆转只有一次四十〇点○万年平均。
15 。我感到困惑的一份报告，福克斯新闻的网站，在2012年一个“强大的太阳风暴能够关闭美国个月” 。他们提到的报告，国家科学院的委托，并支付由美国航天局。如果没有这种情况将会发生所造成的事件在2012年，为什么会允许这种无稽之谈美国宇航局的报告？
美国航天局很高兴与国家研究理事会报告太阳物理学。正如你注意到，这份报告包括了最坏情况的分析可能发生的今天，如果有重复的最大的太阳风暴有记 录（ 1859年） 。问题是这种信息的方式可以用来断章取义。我们没有理由期望如此大的太阳风暴在不久的将来，肯定不会在2012年明确。您提到的“如果在2012年”说明 这个问题。没有任何预测“活动于2012年。 ”我们甚至不知道，如果下一个太阳活动峰将在这一年。整个2012年灾难的情况是一个骗局，由于广告的好莱坞科幻灾难电影“ 2012年” 。我只能希望大多数人能够区分好莱坞电影情节从现实。
16 。我所有的学校朋友都告诉我，我们都会死在2012年由于流星击中地球。这是真的吗？
您的朋友是错误的。地球一直是受影响的彗星和小行星，虽然点击率较高是非常罕见的。最后一个大的影响是6500万年前，而导致灭绝的恐龙。今天， 美国航天局的天文学家正在开展一项调查所谓空间卫士调查发现任何大型近地小行星很久以前，他们击中。我们已经确定，不存在威胁的小行星一样大，造成了一个 恐龙。所有这一切工作都是公开张贴的发现，每天对美国航天局近地物体项目办公室网站（ neo.jpl.nasa.gov ） ，这样你就可以看到自己，没有达到预计在2012年。
17 。如果Nibiru是一个骗局，为什么不拒绝美国宇航局问题？你怎么能允许这些商店分发和吓唬人吗？为什么没有美国政府做些事！
如果你到美国航天局的主页， nasa.gov ，您会看到许多故事，揭露Nibiru 2012年恶作剧。尝试搜索nasa.com根据“ Nibiru ”或“ 2012年” 。没有更多的美国航天局可以做。这种恶作剧没有任何与美国航天局和美国航天局的基础上没有数据，所以我们作为一个机构不直接参与。但科学家，不论是美国航 天局和外，认识到这种骗局的努力，吓唬人是分散更重要的科学问题，如全球变暖和生物多样性的丧失。我们生活在一个国家有言论自由，这包括自由谎言。你应该 高兴没有检查员。但是，如果你会使用常识，我相信你可以承认的谎言。当我们接近2012年的谎言将来到更加明显。
18 。你能向我证明Nibiru是一个骗局？有很多报道说，会发生什么可怕的在2012年。我需要证明，因为政府和美国航天局正从我们这么多。
这是不符合逻辑的要求提供证据证明， 2012年是世界末日，一个骗局。您的问题应该是世界末日的倡导者，以证明他们所要说的是真正的，而不是美国来证明它是虚假的。如果有人在互联网上声称， 有50英尺高的紫色大象走过克里夫兰骑士，将任何人都希望美国航天局来证明这一点错了吗？举证责任落在谁使这些野生索赔。记得常常引用评论卡尔萨根的特殊 需求非常各级索赔的证据，才能相信。
但是，我认为，天文学家已达到的地步，我们能够提供极其强大的论点Nibiru不存在。大星球（或褐矮星）在我们的太阳系将已经知道天文学家多年 来，双方间接从引力摄动的物体和其他直接检测红外。 NASA的红外天文卫星（红外天文卫星）进行了首次全天空调查于1983年，和几个随后的调查也已经看到Nibiru如果它在那里。此外，如果一个大型群 众通过太阳系内部每三千六百年，我们将看到它的破坏性影响的轨道内的行星，而我们没有。
你不需要我的话。只要使用常识。你见过Nibiru ？在2008年许多网站称，这是肉眼可见的2009年春季。如果一个大的行星或褐矮星的户主为太阳系内部在2012年，它已经被跟踪了数以十万计的天文学 家，专业和业余，世界各地的游客。你知道有业余天文学家谁正在看呢？你见过任何照片或讨论，在大受欢迎的天文学杂志像天空和望远镜？只要想一想。没有人可 以隐藏Nibiru如果它的存在。
19 。什么可怕的广告2012年的新电影？他们告诉我们看看这些互联网网站，以验证世界末日威胁。
对伪科学声称Nibiru和世界末日在2012年，连同不信任政府，正在扩增宣传新电影由哥伦比亚影业题为2012年，将公布在2009年11 月。电影拖车，出现在影院和在他们的网站上，显示了浪潮打破了喜马拉雅，只有以下文字： “如何将政府准备对我们星球60亿人的世界的终结？ [长期暂停]他们不会。 [长期暂停]查明真相。谷歌搜索2012年“ 。
这部影片的宣传，包括建立一个人造科学网站（ www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/ ）的“人类研究所的连续性” ，这完全是虚构的。根据这个网站，免疫组织化学致力于科学研究和公众准备。它的使命是对人类的生存。该网站解释说，该研究所1978年成立了国际领导人的 政府，商业和科学。他们说，在2004年，免疫组织化学的科学家证实，有94 ％的把握认为，世界将被摧毁， 2012年。本网站鼓励人们注册一个彩票选择那些谁将会被保存;一位同事的名字提交她的猫，这是公认的。我从维基百科，创造这样的假网站是一个新的广告技 术被称为“病毒式营销” ，由计算机病毒类推。
20 。是否有可能涌入的问题，您所描述的一部分，是某种形式的运动，一本书或电影，希望货量否认是采取更多的“证据” ，有阴谋？
我问自己同样的问题，每天的大量的邮件我收到约Nibiru （连同各种路线和极轮班）不断增加-现在超过20每星期。显然，钱是从人们的担心世界末日的到来。有些显然是广告炒作的科幻灾难电影2012年（见问题 19 ） 。许多网站的畅销书和磁带约Nibiru ，甚至“生存包” 。这是很可悲的，那这么多的实际问题（如全球变暖和金融崩溃）人民正在采取的这些谎言。在最后一章的一个新的天文书籍（猎杀星球十）由Govert先令， 他写道： “这里有许多这样的debunkers -考古学家和天文学家谁需要很长的和持怀疑态度看待浪潮Nibiru胡说，用科学的解释精度什么是错的这个宇宙童话。他们将他们的工作将在未来几年。和 2012年12月22日将有一个新的伪科学不经之故事做子弹和整个马戏团将重新开始。因为无论有多少新天体被发现在我们的太阳系，总是会有需要有一个神秘 的星球十“
Stories about the fictional planet Nibiru and predictions of doomsday in December 2012 have blossomed on the Internet. There are now (June 2009) more than 175 books listed on Amazon.com dealing with the 2012 doomsday. As this hoax spreads, many more disaster scenarios are being suggested. “Ask an Astrobiologist” has received nearly a thousand questions about Nibiru and 2012, with more than 200 answers posted. Many new questions are similar to those already answered. Following is a list of the most popular “Twenty Questions” organized in a logical succession and answered in some detail.
In addition to my responses, there are some other good resources
David Morrison,
NAI Senior Scientist
June 1, 2009
The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. Zecharia Sitchin, who writes fiction about the ancient Mesopotamian civilization of Sumer, claimed in several books (e.g., The Twelfth Planet, published in 1976) that he has found and translated Sumerian documents that identify the planet Nibiru, orbiting the Sun every 3600 years. These Sumerian fables include stories of “ancient astronauts” visiting Earth from a civilization of aliens called the Anunnaki. Then Nancy Lieder, a self-declared psychic who claims she is channeling aliens, wrote on her website Zetatalk that the inhabitants of a fictional planet around the star Zeta Reticuli warned her that the Earth was in danger from Planet X or Nibiru. This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012. Only recently have these two fables been linked to the end of the Mayan long-count at the winter solstice in 2012 – hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012.
Nibiru is a name in Babylonian astrology sometimes associated with the god Marduk. Nibiru appears as a minor character in the Babylonian creation poem Enuma Elish as recorded in the library of Assurbanipal, King of Assyria (668-627 BCE). Sumer flourished much earlier, from about the 23rd century to the 17th century BCE. The claims that Nibiru is a planet and was known to the Sumerians are contradicted by scholars who (unlike Zecharia Sitchin) study and translate the written records of ancient Mesopotamia. Sumer was indeed a great civilization, important for the development of agriculture, water management, urban life, and especially writing. However, they left very few records dealing with astronomy. Certainly they did not know about the existence of Uranus, Neptune or Pluto. They also had no understanding that the planets orbited the Sun, an idea that first developed in ancient Greece two millennia after the end of Sumer. Claims that Sumerians had a sophisticated astronomy, or that they even had a god named Nibiru, are the product of Sitchin’s imagination.
IRAS (the NASA Infrared Astronomy Satellite, which carried out a sky survey for 10 months in 1983) discovered many infrared sources, but none of them was Nibiru or Planet X or any other objects in the outer solar system. There is a good discussion from Caltech to be found at (spider.ipac.caltech.edu/staff/tchester/iras/no_tenth_planet_yet.html). Briefly, IRAS cataloged 350,000 infrared sources, and initially many of these sources were unidentified (which was the point, of course, of making such a survey). All of these observations have been followed up by subsequent studies with more powerful instruments both on the ground and in space. The rumor about a “tenth planet” erupted in 1984 after a scientific paper was published in Astrophysical Journal Letters titled “Unidentified point sources in the IRAS minisurvey”, which discussed several infrared sources with “no counterparts”. But these “mystery objects” were subsequently found to be distant galaxies (except one, which was a wisp of “infrared cirrus”), as published in 1987. No IRAS source has ever turned out to be a planet. A good discussion of this whole issue is to be found on Phil Plait’s website (www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/science.html#iras). The bottom line is that Nibiru is a myth, with no basis in fact. To an astronomer, persistent claims about a planet that is “nearby” but “invisible” are just plain silly.
“Planet X” is an oxymoron when applied to a real object. The term has been used by astronomers over the past century for a possible or suspected object. Once the object is found, it is given a real name, as was done with Pluto and Eris, both of which were at some time referred to as Planet X. If a new object turns out to be not real, or not a planet, then you won’t hear about it again. If it is real, it is not called Planet X.
Eris is one of several dwarf planets recently found by astronomers in the outer solar system, all of them on normal orbits that will never bring them near Earth. Like Pluto, Eris is smaller than our Moon. It is very far away, and its orbit never brings it closer than about 4 billion miles. There is no secret about Eris and its orbit, as you can easily verify by googling it or looking it up in Wikipedia.
There is a telescope at the South Pole, but it was not built by NASA and not used to study Nibiru. The South Pole Telescope was supported by the National Science Foundation, and it is a radio telescope, not an optical instrument. It cannot take images or photos. You can look it up on Wikipedia. The Antarctic is a great place for astronomical infrared and short-wave-radio observations, and it also has the advantage that objects can be observed continuously without the interference of the day-night cycle.
I should add that it is impossible to imagine a geometry in which an object can be seen only from the South Pole. Even if it were due south of the Earth, it could be seen from the entire southern hemisphere.
The great majority of the photos and videos on the Internet are of some feature near the Sun (apparently supporting the claim that Nibiru has been hiding behind the Sun for the past several years.) These are actually false images of the Sun caused by internal reflections in the lens, often called lens flare. You can identify them easily by the fact that they appear diametrically opposite the real solar image, as if reflected across the center of the image. This is especially obvious in videos, where as the camera moves, the false image dances about always exactly opposite the real image. Similar lens flare is a source of many UFO photos taken at night with strong light sources such as streetlights in the frame. I am surprised that people don’t recognize this common photo artifact. I am also amazed that these photos showing something nearly as large and bright as the Sun (a “second sun”) are accepted together with claims made on some of the same websites that Nibiru is too faint to be seen or photographed except with large telescopes.
One widely reported telescopic photo (www.greatdreams.com/nibiru-possible.jpg) shows two views of an expanding gas cloud far beyond the solar system, which is not moving; you can see this from the fact that the stars are the same in both pictures. A sharp-eyed reader of this website identified these photos as a gas shell around the star V838 Mon. Wikipedia has a nice write-up and a beautiful photo of it from Hubble. Another high school student was initially impressed by posted images of a red blob that were said to be of Nibiru. Then he worked out in his Photoshop class how to make just such pictures starting from scratch.
One video posted in summer 2008 on Youtube (www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDKtkWIx00A) shows a guy standing in his kitchen claiming that one of the objects discovered by a NASA x-ray telescope is Nibiru. What is his evidence? That since this false-color x-ray image released by NASA is blue, this must really be a nearby planet with an ocean. This would be hilarious if it were not used to frighten people.
Several people have asked me about this blank rectangle in Orion in Google Sky, which is a presentation of images from the Sloan Digital Survey. This can’t be a “hiding place” for Nibiru, since it is a part of the sky that could be seen from almost everywhere on the Earth in the winter of 2007-08 when much of the talk about Nibiru began. That would contradict the claims that Nibiru was hiding behind the Sun or that it could be seen only from the southern hemisphere. But I too was curious about this blank rectangle, so I asked a friend who is a senior scientist at Google. He replied that he “found out that the missing data is due to a processing error in the image stitching program we use to display the Sloan survey images. The team assures me that in the next run through, this will be fixed!”
There are many objectives of government, but they do not include keeping the population at ease. My experience is that sometimes parts of the government do just the opposite, as in the frequent references to various terrorist threats or warnings about driving accidents on long holiday weekends, which are no more dangerous than any other time. There is a long history of associating bad things with political opponents (older readers will remember the “missile gap” in the 1960 election, younger ones will note the many current references to who is or is not keeping the U.S. safe from terrorists). Further, social scientists have pointed out that many of our concepts of public panic are the product of Hollywood, while in the real world people have a good record of helping each other in a time of danger. I think everyone also recognizes that keeping bad news secret usually backfires, making the issue even worse when the facts finally come out. And in the case of Nibiru, these facts would come out very soon indeed.
Even if they wanted to, the government could not keep Nibiru a secret. If it were real, it would be tracked by thousands of astronomers, amateurs as well a professional. These astronomers are spread all over the world. I know the astronomy community, and these scientists would not keep a secret even if ordered to. You just can’t hide a planet on its way to the inner solar system!
Calendars exist for keeping track of the passage of time, not for predicting the future. The Mayan astronomers were clever, and they developed a very complex calendar. Ancient calendars are interesting to historians, but of they cannot match the ability we have today to keep track of time, or the precision of the calendars currently in use. The main point, however, is that calendars, whether contemporary or ancient, cannot predict the future of our planet or warn of things to happen on a specific date such as 2012.
I note that my desk calendar ends much sooner, on December 31 2009, but I do not interpret this as a prediction of Armageddon. It is just the beginning of a new year.
A reversal in the rotation of Earth is impossible. It has never happened and never will. There are slow movements of the continents (for example Antarctica was near the equator hundreds of millions of years ago), but that is irrelevant to claims of reversal of the rotational poles. However, many of the disaster websites pull a bait-and-shift to fool people. They claim a relationship between the rotation and the magnetic polarity of Earth, which does change irregularly with a magnetic reversal taking place every 400,000 years on average. As far as we know, such a magnetic reversal doesn’t cause any harm to life on Earth. A magnetic reversal is very unlikely to happen in the next few millennia, anyway. But they falsely claim that a magnetic reversal is coming soon (in 2012) and that this is the same as, or will trigger, a reversal of rotational poles. The bottom line is: (a) Rotation direction and magnetic polarity are not related. (b) There is no reason to expect a reversal of magnetic polarity any time soon, or to anticipate any bad effects on life when it does eventually happen. © A sudden shift in rotational pole with disastrous consequences is impossible. Also, none of this has anything to do with the galactic equator or any of the other nonsense about alignments that appears on many of the conspiracy theory websites.
There is no planet alignment in 2012 or any other time in the next several decades. As to the Earth being in the center of the Milky Way, I don’t know what this phrase means. If you are referring to the Milky Way Galaxy, we are rather far toward the edge of this spiral galaxy, some 30,000 light years from the center. We circle the galactic center in a period of 225-250 million years, always keeping approximately the same distance. Concerning a pole shift, I also don’t know what this means. If it means some sudden change in the position of the pole (that is, the rotation axis of the Earth), then that is impossible, as noted in the answer to Question 10. What many websites do discuss is the alignment of the Earth and Sun with the center of the Milky Way in the constellation of Sagittarius. This happens every December, with no bad consequences, and there is no reason to expect 2012 to be different from any other year.
There is a giant black hole in the center of our Milky Way galaxy, and like any concentration of mass it exerts gravitational force on the rest of the Galaxy. However, the galactic center is very far away, approximately 30,000 light years, so it has negligible effects on the solar system or the Earth. There are no special forces from the galactic plane or the galactic center. The only important force that acts on the Earth is the gravitation of the Sun and Moon. As far as the influence of the galactic plane, there is nothing special about this location. The last time the Earth was in the galactic plane was several million years ago. Claims that we are about to cross the galactic plane are untrue.
The “dark rift” is a popular name for the broad and diffuse dust clouds in the
inner arm of the Milky Way Galaxy, which block our view of the galactic
center. The entire “galactic alignment” scare is pretty crazy. Late in
December the Sun is always approximately in the direction of the center of
the Galaxy as seen from the Earth, but so what? Apparently the con-men who are trying to scare you have decided to use these meaningless phrases about “alignments” and the “dark rift” and “photon belt” precisely because they are not understood by the public. It is too bad, but there is no law against lying on the Internet or anywhere else except in a court of law. As far as the safety of the Earth is concerned, the important threats are from global warming and loss of biological diversity, and perhaps someday from collision with an asteroid or comet, not the pseudoscientific claims about 2012.
Near solar maximum (which happens every 11 years approximately), there are many more solar flares and coronal mass ejections than near solar minimum. Flares and mass ejections are no danger for humans or other life on Earth. They could endanger astronauts in deep space or on the Moon, and this is something that NASA must learn to deal with, but it is not a problem for you or me. Large outbursts can interrupt radio transmission, cause bright displays of the aurora (Northern and Southern Lights), and damage the electronics of some satellites in space. Today many satellites are designed to deal with this possibility, for example by switching off some of their more delicate circuits and going into a “safe” mode for a few hours. In extreme cases solar activity can also disrupt electrical transmissions on the ground, possibly leading to electrical blackouts, but this is rare.
The last solar maximum occurred in 2001, so the next one was predicted for around 2012, 11 years later. However, the most recent solar minimum was unusual, with a period of a couple of years with almost no sunspots or other indications of solar activity, so scientists now guess that the next maximum will be delayed, perhaps to 2013. However, the details of the solar cycle remain basically unpredictable.
You are correct that the Earth’s magnetic field protects us by creating a large region in space, called the Earth’s magnetosphere, within which most of the material ejected from the Sun is captured or deflected, but there is no reason to expect a reversal of magnetic polarity any time soon. These magnetic reversals happen only once in 400,000 years on average.
NASA is pleased with the National Research Council report on heliophysics. As you note, this report includes a worst-case analysis of what could happen today if there were a repetition of the biggest solar storm ever recorded (in 1859). The problem is the way such information can be used out of context. There is no reason to expect such a large solar storm in the near future, certainly not in 2012 specifically. Your reference to “the event in 2012” illustrates this problem. There is no prediction of an “event in 2012”. We don’t even know if the next solar maximum will take place in that year. The whole 2012 disaster scenario is a hoax, fueled by ads for the Hollywood science-fiction disaster film “2012”. I can only hope that most people are able to distinguish Hollywood film plots from reality.
Your friends are wrong. The Earth has always been subject to impacts by comets and asteroids, although big hits are very rare. The last big impact was 65 million years ago, and that led to the extinction of the dinosaurs. Today NASA astronomers are carrying out a survey called the Spaceguard Survey to find any large near-Earth asteroids long before they hit. We have already determined that there are no threatening asteroids as large as the one that killed the dinosaurs. All this work is done openly with the discoveries posted every day on the NASA NEO Program Office website (neo.jpl.nasa.gov), so you can see for yourself that nothing is predicted to hit in 2012.
If you go to the NASA home page, nasa.gov, you will see many stories that expose the Nibiru-2012 hoax. Try searching nasa.com under “Nibiru” or “2012”. There is not much more that NASA can do. These hoaxes have nothing to do with NASA and are not based on NASA data, so we as an agency are not directly involved. But scientists, both within NASA and outside, recognize that this hoax with its effort to frighten people is a distraction from more important science concerns, such as global warming and loss of biological diversity. We live in a country where there is freedom of speech, and that includes freedom to lie. You should be glad there are no censors. But if you will just use common sense I am sure you can recognize the lies. As we approach 2012, the lies will be come even more obvious.
It is not logical to ask for proof that the 2012 doomsday is a hoax. Your questions should be to the doomsday advocates to prove that what they are saying is true, not to NASA to prove it is false. If someone claimed on the Internet that there were 50-foot tall purple elephants walking through Cleveland, would anyone expect NASA to prove this wrong? The burden of proof falls on those who make wild claims. Remember the often-quoted comment from Carl Sagan that extraordinary claims demand extraordinary levels of evidence if they are to be believed.
However, I think that astronomers have reached the point where we can offer extremely strong arguments that Nibiru does not exist. A large planet (or a brown dwarf) in our solar system would have been known to astronomers for many years, both indirectly from its gravitational perturbations on other objects and by direct detection in the infrared. The NASA Infrared Astronomy Satellite (IRAS) carried out the first all-sky survey in 1983, and several subsequent surveys would also have seen Nibiru if it were there. Further, if a large mass passed through the inner solar system every 3600 years, we would see its disruptive effects on the orbits of the inner planets, and we don’t.
You don’t need to take my word for it. Just use common sense. Have you seen Nibiru? In 2008 many websites said it would be visible to the naked eye in spring 2009. If a large planet or brown dwarf were headed for the inner solar system in 2012, it would already be tracked by hundreds of thousands of astronomers, professional and amateur, all over the world. Do you know any amateur astronomers who are watching it? Have you seen any photos or discussion of it in the big popular astronomy magazines like Sky & Telescope? Just think about it. No one could hide Nibiru if it existed.
The pseudoscientific claims about Nibiru and a doomsday in 2012, together with distrust of the government, are being amplified by publicity for the new film from Columbia Pictures titled 2012, to be released in November 2009. The film’s trailer, appearing in theaters and on their website , shows a tidal wave breaking over the Himalayas, with only the following words: “How would the governments of our planet prepare 6 billion people for the end of the world? [long pause] They wouldn’t. [long pause] Find out the Truth. Google search 2012”.
The film publicity includes creation of a faux scientific website (www.instituteforhumancontinuity.org/) for “The Institute for Human Continuity”, which is entirely fictitious. According to this website, the IHC is dedicated to scientific research and public preparedness. Its mission is the survival of mankind. The website explains that the Institute was founded 1978 by international leaders of government, business, and science. They say that in 2004, IHC scientists confirmed with 94% certainty that the world would be destroyed in 2012. This website encourages people to register for a lottery to select those who will be saved; a colleague submitted the name of her cat, which was accepted. I learned from Wikipedia that creating this sort of fake website is a new advertising technique called “Viral Marketing”, by analogy with computer viruses.
I ask myself the same questions every day, as the volume of mail I receive about Nibiru (along with various alignments and pole shifts) keeps increasing — now more than 20 per week. Clearly there is money to be made from people’s fear about an approaching doomsday. Some of this hype is apparently advertising for the science fiction disaster movie 2012 (see Question 19). Many websites are selling books and tapes about Nibiru or even “survival kits”. It is all very sad, that with so many real issues (such as global warming and financial collapse) people are being taken in by these lies. In the final chapter of a new astronomy book (The Hunt for Planet X) by Govert Shilling, he writes: “There is plenty to do for the debunkers – the archaeologists and astronomers who take a long and skeptical look at the tidal wave of Nibiru nonsense and explain with scientific precision what is wrong with this cosmic fairy-tale. They will have their work cut out in the next few years. And on December 22, 2012 there will be a new pseudoscientific cock-and-bull story doing the rounds and the whole circus will start all over again. Because no matter how many new celestial bodies are found in our solar system, there will always be a need for a mysterious Planet X.”