AstroBlonde

I'm gonna start this post with a big and loud sigh. Another movie is made to scare people, and confuse them even more. I'm talking about the movie "2012" and all the talk about Planet X. Yet another doomsday prediction that is not built on science and people seem to belive in it, sigh.

Just like the LCH thing, when people were scared that the Earth would get "eaten" by a black hole, people now seem to think that the world will end in 2012 in a collision or a near miss with a large planet. What's up with all this? Well, I think what this is all about and it has nothing to do with the end of the world. But first, let me expain a little about this theory...

The doomsday prediction is called Nibiru collision. It is either a collision or a near miss between the Earth and a large planetary object. According to believers this will happen more or less in 2012 and they call the planetary object Planet X or Nibiru. The size of this object is different from where you hear it, but on Wikipedia it says that Planet X as roughly four times the size of the Earth.

Actually, it seems like they first said the doomsday would occur on May 27, 2003 but nothing happened and so they said it was a white lie to get the attention by the people but the actual date would occur later.

Ah well, so they say that the magnetic field of the Planet X will make a physical change in the Earth poles when passing close to the Earth. In other words, the Earth would be turned "upside down" so nothing to do with the Earth's magnetic fields changing. Then, they say, that this would disrupt the Earth's magnetic core and lead to subsequent displacement of the Earth's crust.

I also need to add that this doomesday theory started with a woman who sayd that she was contacted by gray extraterrestrials called Zetas when she was a girl, and they told her this. The last I've heard about this is that the doomsday prediction is set to some time in December 2012, also the end of the current cycle (baktun) in the long count in the Mayan calendar.

Read more on Wikipedia

Anyway, as you can guess I'm gonna say "Nonsence!". I mean, the "threat" we have from asteroids and comets out there need to be taken serious as long as they are based on science. But this is not even close to science. First of all, an object like that is possible to see by many reasons:
1) It's fairly large and should be easier to see than an asteroid or comet, which are very small objects. If we can see those small objects we would be able to see an object as large as this.
2) An object of this size would interupt the other planets orbits and we would notice it very clearly when observing the standard planets (I mean, if you point your telescope at a position where all the programs tell you it should be and the planet is not there, you would notice it).

Here you can find a sketch of the orbit the doomsday prediction people have made.
Sketch of the orbit for the supposed Planet X

I looked at this sketch for a couple of seconds and realized that the orbit of Planet X, according to this sketch, does not even cross the orbit of the Earth. According to this sketch it would cross the asteroid belt, and that's not even harmful for the Earth. Ok, there are no scientific data that this planet exists, but if it would exist the magnetic field of the planet X would not interact with the magnitic field of the Earth at that distance. Especially not turn the Earth "upside down" (which is not even possible to do with just an magnetic field). Jupiter is probably affecting the Earth more every day than this would do. Anyway, IF we had a planet X crossing the asteroid belt like that, the worries would lie on asteroids to be sent into the inner Solar system. THAT would be a problem, but not the planet X itself.

Ok, so is it possible for a planet to have this elliptical orbit and its mass?
Well, everything is possible but it is not really likely. I would say that this type of massive objects, with an aphelion so far out in the Solar System, would get interupted by nearby stars and its orbit would not be very stable. Therefore, the orbit the doomsday prediction people say about 3600 years is not very likely. You have to keep in mind here that the Solar System has been built up for 5 billion years, and alot of unstable orbit objects have been thrown out of the Solar System. A planet like this would very likely been thrown out of crashed with Jupiter. This is also what scientists calculated. Scientist have also calculated that an orbit time of that is not possible either when compared to the sketched orbit.

So, the doomesday people say that the planet X may be behind the Sun all the time, and that's why we've never seen it. But that argument doesn't hold! I mean, everyone knows that an object close to a star does one orbit in a shorter time than an object far away from the Sun. That is just simple Newtonian physics. So, if planet X is behind the Sun when we have summer in the Northern hemisphere it should be visible when we have done 1/4 orbit, or 1/2 orbit and so on. Otherwise the elliptic orbit planet X has doesn't make sence. Does it have a circular orbit with one hell of an engine on it, and just an elliptical orbit when, uhm, it has decided to come close to the Earth? It doesn't make sence at all!

So, is it possible that a planet would come into our Solar System from another star?
Well, I would say it's possible. The stars close to us were probably created in the same nebula as the Sun, making them about the same age as the Sun. They have probably formed stable planetary orbits just like our Solar System. But it is likely that smaller objects are thrown into our Solar System, and that our Solar System is giving objects to our closest stars. But that trading is probably just in the outskirts of our Solar System, like in the Oort's cloud. If they come closer we have to remember that we have four bodyguards in our Solar System, namely Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune. If an asteroid comes close to Neptune it is either thrown out or colliding with that planet. If not, it comes to Uranus and so on. Jupiter has a problem of throwing them to a massive planet on the inside which, in most cases, leads to that the asteroid is thrown out. But here I'm just talking about small objects, like asteroids or comets. A planet sized object with an unstable orbit would probably been thrown out billions of years ago, leading to no bigger worries today. But this doesn't explain why the doomsday prediction people say the planet X has an orbit period of 3600 years because if it was thrown out from another Solar System this would be the first time we'd seen it.

My conclusions: This doomsday prediction is just fiction. It's is not based on any science and alot of the things they say break the laws of physics. It's not observed although it would be fairly easy to do. It does not interupt the outer planets which it suppose to do. In other words it's like it's not there...

Anyway, NASA did an announcement a couple of days ago just to calm people down. If you still doubt my judgement here read it.
Q and A at NASA


So, why do all these doomesday and consiricy things turn up?
I think it doesn't have to do with the actual event or statements they say. People just want to fit in somewhere and build their own world on something. Religion had this effect on people before, and still do, but there are alot more people not beliving in a god today. Instead they want to connect to something else, feel like they're a part of something. Perhaps feel that they have a purpose in life. Perhaps this is the new type of religion, using the internet to spread their word.

I would like to end this post by telling you that it is great to be objective and doubt, but you have to base your oppinions on facts and READ about both sides. All the time ask yourself it if makes sence. If it's way beyond your understanding, try to understand it by putting some energy into it. Don't belive in all stuff you read without looking at the facts!