What is Planet Nibiru?
Planet Nibiru is an unknown planet said to orbit the outer solar system over a very long period. It has been told of together with doomsday prophecies that “Nibiru will one day approach Earth and collide with it, or cause catastrophes such as great earthquakes and tsunamis, destroying humanity.” It is sometimes called “Planet X.”
It began with Sitchin’s theory
The story of Nibiru is based on a book published in 1976 by the American writer Zecharia Sitchin. Sitchin, reading the Sumerian clay tablets of ancient Mesopotamia in his own way, claimed that the solar system has a planet, Nibiru, that orbits the sun about every 3,600 years, and that aliens called the Anunnaki came from it. However, experts point out that “Nibiru” was originally a word in Mesopotamian astronomy for stars and celestial bodies and did not refer to an unknown planet.
“Collision dates” that failed again and again
From the 1990s on, prophecies that Nibiru would approach Earth spread online, and “the day” was announced many times, including 2003, 2012 (said to be the end of the Maya calendar) and 2017. Each time, nothing happened.
What astronomers say
Astronomers at NASA and elsewhere explain that no planet like Nibiru exists. If a planet large enough to approach Earth within a few years existed, many astronomers would already have observed it, and it would be shining brightly enough to see with the naked eye. Serious research is underway into the possibility of an undiscovered planet (Planet Nine) far out in the solar system, but that is completely separate from Nibiru, and it would never approach Earth. For doomsday prophecies, see also the Prophecies of Nostradamus and The Future I Saw.
