Nibiru

The Planet Nibiru

Nibiru (also known as Planet X) is the twelfth and final planet from the Sun in the Solar System, using a word that comes from the Akkadian language and means “ford”, “place of transition” or “ferry”. In astronomical and mythical context, it is a celestial body. In Babylonian mythology, it is associated with the god Marduk. It is a hypothetical alien planet from The Humanoid Universe.

In some Babylonian astronomical texts Nibiru identified as the planet Jupiter.

Nibiru as a planet myth

The writers Zecharia Sitchin and Burak Eldem refers to Sumerian language texts that Nibiru is a planet from The Humanoid Universe that, once every 3600 years, enters our solar system cortex. The planet would follow an orbit leading it between Jupiter and Mars before it starts its way back into the unknown space. Followers of the Sitchin and Eldems argument fear the passage of Niburu for the earthquakes, tidal waves, food shortages, diseases, meteorites and volcanic eruptions that it will make. This is because the Sumerian texts speak of a similar event, about 11,000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. In biblical terms this event is known as the deluge.

According Sitchins and Eldems’ interpretation of Sumerian clay tablets, The Sumerian people gathered all their knowledge through a visit from the Anunnaki (the people that inhabited the planet Nibiru). The Anunnaki allegedly predicted the return of the planet Nibiru in the year 2012, and that this would entail a radical change for life on earth. This would all happen within a period of 5 years - starting in 2008. The descriptions of the planet Nibiru is in many writings of the Mesopotamian peoples, although under different names such as Marduk. The planet is equated to Planet X by Sitchin and Eldem.

Belief in the myth

There are people who believe in the myth of the Annunaki aliens from the planet Nibiru. These people view this as an alternative creation story.

Cataclysm

Main article: Nibiru cataclysm

The idea was first put forward in 1995 by Nancy Lieder, founder of the website ZetaTalk. Lieder describes herself as a contactee with the ability to receive messages from extraterrestrials from the Zeta Reticuli star system through an implant in her brain. She states that she was chosen to warn mankind that the object would sweep through the inner Solar System in May 2003 (though that date was later postponed) causing Earth to undergo a physical pole shift that would destroy most of humanity.

The prediction has subsequently spread beyond Lieder's website and has been embraced by numerous Internet doomsday groups. In the late 2000s, it became closely associated with the 2012 phenomenon. Since 2012, the Nibiru cataclysm has frequently reappeared in the popular media, usually linked to newsmaking astronomical objects such as Comet ISON or Planet Nine. Although the name "Nibiru" is derived from the works of the ancient astronaut writer Zecharia Sitchin and his interpretations of Babylonian and Sumerian mythology, he denied any connection between his work and various claims of a coming apocalypse. A prediction by self-described "Christian numerologist" David Meade that the Nibiru cataclysm would occur on 23 September 2017 received extensive media coverage.

The idea that a planet-sized object will collide with or closely pass by Earth in the near future is not supported by any scientific evidence and has been rejected by astronomers and planetary scientists as pseudoscience and an Internet hoax. Such an object would have destabilised the orbits of the planets to the extent that their effects would be easily observable today. Astronomers have hypothesized many planets beyond Neptune, and though many have been disproved, there are some that remain viable candidates such as Planet Nine. All the current candidates are in orbits that keep them well beyond Neptune throughout their orbit, even when they are closest to the Sun.

See also

• Solar System
• Nibiru cataclysm
• Global catastrophic risk