Saturday, March 19, 2011

Nibiru, Tyche and Planet X: Behemoth at the Edge of the Solar System?

It has long been suspected that a large, hitherto unknown gas-giant-sized object exists in the Oort Cloud at the outer reaches of the Solar System. This planet or brown dwarf has been given a number of different titles including Tyche, Nibiru, Planet X and Nemesis. Given that NASA and some prominent astrophysicists have found some credibility in the basic idea, it's not a notion that can be dismissed out of hand.

Perhaps the best known variant on the concept is one associated with the name 'Nibiru' and the supposed Mayan prophecies regarding the end of the world in 2012. Those theorists who assert that planet Nibiru exists tend to hold that at some point, either in 2012 or some other date, a large life-bearing planet will sweep through the inner solar-system and wreak havoc. This havoc may involve a direct collision with Earth, or a near-pass which will disrupt our orbit to the extent that life as we know it becomes impossible.

On this idea, it is generally supposed that Nibiru has a highly elongated orbit that has a period or around 3600 years. This can be given credence by pointing to various cataclysms such as super-volcanic eruptions, pole-shifts and extinctions in our history that can be aligned to something like this 3600 year cycle.

Against this, however, is the sheer improbability that a Jupiter-sized object could be on the sort of orbit that would take it from the outer-reaches of the solar system to near the Earth in the time left between now and December 2012. Even if we discount the December 2012 claims, mainstream astrophysicists tend to balk at the idea of a Jupiter-sized planet having a 3600-year orbit that would sweep through the inner solar system. Planet Nibiru is definitely a theory on the fringes.

However, one suspects that a certain level of conservatism could be behind the reluctance of the scientific establishment to admit the possibility of a planet such as Nibiru. 'Planet Tyche', as it has been dubbed, refers to a possible gas-giant or brown dwarf floating around in the Oort Cloud that may be implied by NASA data which has yet to be fully analysed. Could this be an olive-branch to the conspiracy theorists, or just an attempt to diminish the radical implications of the Planet X / Nibiru theories?

The data from NASA's wide surveys of the outer solar system is expected to be ready by some time in 2012. So one way or another, we should have some answers regarding the existence of Tyche, Planet X or Nibiru by then.

Read about the latest amazing theories on Nibiru, 2012, the end of the world and more at AmazingTheories.com

Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Sam_Addison

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