Is there a Planet X?

New Scientist ^ | 31 January 2009 | Govert Schilling

[SunkenCiv]

Planet X would be the most significant addition to the solar system since the discovery of Pluto... Any new object would have to be well clear of the Kuiper belt to qualify as a planet. Yet intriguingly, it is studies of the belt that have suggested the planet's existence. Some KBOs travel in extremely elongated orbits around the sun. Others have steep orbits almost at right angles to the orbits of all the major planets. "Those could be signs of perturbation from a massive distant object," says Robert Jedicke, a solar system scientist at the University of Hawaii... Over the past 20 years, huge swaths of the sky have been searched for slowly moving bodies, and well over 1000 KBOs found. But these wide-area surveys can spot only large, bright objects; longer-exposure surveys that can find smaller, dimmer objects cover only small areas of the sky. A Mars-sized object at a distance of, say, 100 AU would be so faint that it could easily have escaped detection. That could soon change. In December 2008, the first prototype of the Panoramic Survey Telescope and Rapid Response System (Pan-STARRS) was brought into service at the Haleakala observatory on Maui, Hawaii.

[count-your-change]

Yes, there is. I saw the files on t.v., The X Files.

[Dr.Deth]

The science is settled! Wanna buy some Charon Credits?

[SunkenCiv]

The Nemesis idea came about from the combination of apparent periodicity of mass extinctions and the Alvarez model. David Raup was one of the early participants, and has a couple of books about Nemesis and mass extinction. Richard Muller here:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1962278/posts?page=46#46

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Ditto. There’s a school of thought that says that the Neptunian ephemeris can be better explained by dropping out a small number of observations, making the Planet X problem (quote) a psychological one (unquote). :’) That’s not my view, but hey, hardly anyone listens to me. ;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Planet Vulcan found?
8/31/2000 Science Roundup
from the Star Trek Official website

In fact, among the most recently discovered extrasolar planets is one that has been linked directly to Star Trek. Astronomers at the McDonald Observatory in Austin, Texas, announced earlier this month that they have detected a planet orbiting Epsilon Eridani, which is 10.5 light-years from Earth and the closest star yet showing evidence of a solar system. Epsilon Eridani has been identified in some Star Trek literature as the home of planet Vulcan.

What makes this story more interesting from a Star Trek perspective is that the discovery was made by a team led by Dr. William Cochran of the University of Texas. It was Dr. Cochran's near-namesake, Dr. Zefram Cochrane, who was the first human to meet a member of the Vulcan species in "Star Trek: First Contact."

The planet found by the Texas team is a gas giant slightly larger than Jupiter with a stable orbit similar in radius to that of the asteroid belt in our own solar system. With the planet lying that distance from its star, the possibility is raised that Earth-like (Class M) planets could exist closer to Epsilon Eridani, in a zone Cochran said might be habitable...

Epsilon Eridani was identified as the Vulcan sun in the "Star Trek Spaceflight Chronology" published in 1980. However, other writings--including a letter from Gene Roddenberry and three astrophysicists to Sky & Telescope magazine in 1991--suggest that Eridani 40 is a likelier candidate for the honor. (It should be noted that the Vulcan sun has never been officially identified in the Star Trek series, so neither should be considered canon.)

About 50 extrasolar planets have been detected so far by astronomers measuring wobbles in the movement of their parent stars. No such planets have been observed directly, but NASA plans to launch two new space-based telescopes dedicated to the pursuit of Earth-like planets in 2013, in a project called the Terrestrial Planet Finder.

[SunkenCiv]

Planet Q is just south of Berkeley.

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[SunkenCiv]

Already happened nearly six years ago. We all died. It was *in* all the papers. ;')

Blindsided: Planet X Passes in 2003 by Mark Hazlewood homepage Insiders from NASA speculate 2/3 of the population of the planet will perish during the coming pole-shift caused by the passage of Planet X in 2003. Another 2/3 of those that survive initially will pass away to starvation and exposure to the elements within 6 months. Every secretive government agency in the USA is fully aware of what is expected in 2003 and are readying themselves. The Vatican is fully abreast of what is expected. The public is not being warned and given their chance to prepare.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m a little jealous now. :’)

[SunkenCiv]

Zecharia Sitchin's Errors: An Overview
by Michael S. Heiser

The study shows - from the texts themselves, not my opinion - that "Nibiru" is not a planet beyond Pluto and that the Anunnaki gods are never associated with it. These ideas are fabrications... This study details the impossibility of Sitchin's translations of "nephilim" as "those who came down" or "people of the fiery rockets" in light of Hebrew vocabulary and grammar. I know it sounds mind- numbing, but again I have tried to illustrate the concepts and problems. It also contains a scan of a page from one of Sitchin's books where he could not tell the difference between Aramaic and Hebrew - an amazing mistake if he's an expert... Mr. Sitchin contends that the word "Nephilim" means "those who came down from above" or "those who descended to earth" or "people of the fiery rockets" (see The Twelfth Planet, pp. vii, 128ff.). These translations, of course, serve his purpose - to see the Nephilim as ancient astronauts. As such it is hard to over-estimate the importance of Sitchin's work here - if he's wrong about the meaning of "nephilim," much of his overall thesis falls... Sitchin assumes "Nephilim" comes from the Hebrew word "naphal" (as opposed to ARAMAIC - see below) which usually means "to fall." He then forces the meaning "to come down" onto the word, creating his "to come down from above" translation. "Nephilim" - in the form we find it in the Hebrew Bible - COULD come from Hebrew "naphal," but it could ONLY mean be translated one way in light of the spelling - "those who are fallen" (i.e., either "fallen in battle" - which is out of the question given the context of Genesis 6 - or "spiritually fallen" / evil - which fits the context IF the sons of God are evil)... In short, if you care about the grammar of Hebrew, Sitchin's word meanings CAN'T be correct. The above file also discusses Sitchin's confusion of the sons of God and the nephilim - and evidence from his own book, Stairway to Heaven, that he cannot distinguish between Hebrew and Aramaic! My suspicion behind this apparent blunder is that Sitchin wants to distance the Annunaki from the evil Watchers of ancient Jewish literature (Hebrew Bible, Enoch, and some Dead Sea Scrolls).

[SunkenCiv]

[virtual ticker tape parade for eclecticEel]

[SunkenCiv]

Science topics belong in Chat, as anyone who has posted topics should know. If you're trying to start yet another big fight with all comers in a random topic, you need a new hobby.

[SunkenCiv]

---

The Nemesis Affair: A Story of the Death of Dinosaurs and the Ways of Science by David M. Raup 1st ed paperback	Extinction: Bad Genes or Bad Luck? by David M. Raup hardcover import paperback

---

[silverleaf]

thanks- looks like another book to read

[silverleaf]

LOL!!

[silverleaf]

interesting stuff- the orginal conversation doc seems to have disappeared

As for periodicity- at least one of the sources I’ve been reading speculates that when “planet X” ( or whatever) passes through our solar system, it pulls asteroids and comets in with it, and the earth is then buffeted for a period of years by the junk- about 7 years of “tribulation”? Possibilities of follow on collisions

[silverleaf]

http://www.apollonius.net/polarpivot.html

http://www.apollonius.net/cosmictree.html

More fun stuff to read about- good escape form worrying about fairytales like, the world economy will disappear and the US will first go marxist and then be absorbed into a new world order

[AntiKev]

It is an escape, that’s for sure. Too bad I have real science to attend to.

[SunkenCiv]

I’m finally getting around to reading Govert Schilling’s book.