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Planet x

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Sam

Sam

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This is a conspiracy theory that's been going around for a while. We were all supposed to be wiped out by the same thing in 2003, I'm quite sure that didn't happen by virtue of the fact we are all still here. The story re-surfaced and has since been linked to the end of the Mayan calendar. There's some pretty ridiculous stories whizzing around about the so called Planet X such as it's approcahing Earth and governments are hiding it from us. Not likely as someone on SGL would have imaged it by now plus something as visible as some claim it to be would be very hard for governments to hide. There seems to be an awful lot of psuedoscience surrounding this and seems to me to portray the whole thing as rubbish.

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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Thanks for the clarification! I think these absurd plot theories may be invented by goverrnments to discredit those prescient theories that have successfully exposed their real plots...

(Hey, my first plot theory! Let's see if it takes wing...)

What is rather sad, though, is that idle-minded souls, too incurious to read a word within the scientific culture on which they depend, should be so full of energy when it comes to propagating pseudo scientific drivel.

As for the Mayan long count, probably the most accurate calendrical system ever devised, remember that they were writing on limestone using obsidian tools. The probably just got fed up with all that chipping and stopped when they did...

Olly

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E621Keith

E621Keith

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Planet X? I think it's called Mondas, home planet of the Cyberman :(. They also make very expensive carbon racing bikes.

Anyway, it's very unlikely they will find the ninth planet, let alone 10th. I'm sure more and more dwarf planets will turn up, but I doubt anything new will fit IAU's new definition of planet.

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Hypernova

Hypernova

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We will have to wait for the results from NASA's "WISE" mission, which is currently undertaking an all sky survey in infrared wavelengths to search for nearby cool brown dwarfs and distant planets, to be sure if there is another planet in the solar system or not. It has already discovered tens of thousands of previously unknown asteroids and a couple of comets as as well as a few brown dwarf candidates.

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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ollypenrice

ollypenrice

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We will have to wait for the results from NASA's "WISE" mission, which is currently undertaking an all sky survey in infrared wavelengths to search for nearby cool brown dwarfs and distant planets, to be sure if there is another planet in the solar system or not. It has already discovered tens of thousands of previously unknown asteroids and a couple of comets as as well as a few brown dwarf candidates.

Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Good link. Thanks.

Olly

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acey

acey

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Other than Pluto, "Planet X" often refers now to "Niburu", a supposed planet in the pseudo-scientific ideas of Zecharia Sitchin, which is connected with Mayan 2012 pseudoscience. Not taken seriously by any sane astronomers.

Zecharia Sitchin - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nibiru collision - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Planet X (disambiguation) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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umadog

umadog

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I've just finished reading "How I Killed Pluto and Why it Had it Coming". Good read. The author mentions that no serious astronomer any longer believes in Planet X. Note that "Planet X" does not simply mean "unknown planet"; there was a more precise definition. Lowell proposed the existence of a "Planet X" to explain apparent discrepancies in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune. By the mid 20th Century it was demonstrated that Pluto is too small to explain such discrepancies and so cannot be Lowell's "Planet X". Even at the time of discovery, its size did appear to be smaller then predicted.

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Skybrowser

Skybrowser

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Have a look on You Tube as well - loads of Niburu guff there too. The conspiracy theorists are probably the same lot who go on about Area 51 and that the moon landings were done in a studio. Oh and Kennedy was murdered by government people too. What these nutters fail to realise is that some people will actually believe this nonsense and some will be genuinely concerned, even scared by it.

Planet X seems like it's something straight out of a 1940s Flash Gordon movie. Either that or the Green Mekon lives there (yes, I remember the Eagle comic).

It is all a load of tosh, including the Mayan stuff. Brian Cox summed it up in his own inimitable style on Twitter a few months back, using words which would get me banned from SGL if I repeated them here.

There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions of astronomers in the world and by now, one of us would have spotted it, imaged it and asked for feedback as to whether we've been a bit on the heavy side with the colour curves in Photoshop!

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iamjulian

iamjulian

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Umadog, I added that Pluto book to my Amazon wish list today. Read Mike Browns stuff in "Hunt for Planet X" which was a great book (about discovery of Pluto and Kuiper Belt objects, not this wacky Niburu thing). Currently reading "Pluto: Sentinel of the outer solar system" which is also a good book. I read Richard Muller's book and asked him just last year whether he still believed in his Nemesis "planet" and he said yes.

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SiriusB

SiriusB

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By the mid 20th Century it was demonstrated that Pluto is too small to explain such discrepancies and so cannot be Lowell's "Planet X". Even at the time of discovery, its size did appear to be smaller then predicted.

I read that somewhere too- So how do they explain these perturbations? Maybe there is indeed a planet "X" making Uranus & Neptune misbehave?

If so, i find it a little hard to believe its going to suddenly leap out of its orbit & make a beeline for planet earth.

Something may hit us one day, but not, i suspect,, planet "X" even if it does exist.

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acey

acey

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The perturbations were found to be non-existent once more orbital data was acquired (Uranus and Neptune have very long orbital periods). It just so happened that Pluto was in the region of sky where the supposed Planet X was expected to be.

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SiriusB

SiriusB

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The perturbations were found to be non-existent once more orbital data was acquired (Uranus and Neptune have very long orbital periods). It just so happened that Pluto was in the region of sky where the supposed Planet X was expected to be.

Sounds like a rather hefty nail in planet "X"'s coffin then.

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