Astronomers have found an enormous new planet with 13.4 times the mass of Jupiter, circling a star in the "bulge" of the Milky Way, a tightly packed group of stars within the galaxy. Planet X is the name given to any new planet that has yet to be officially named. But it is also one of the names given to the mythical Nibiru system, which some conspiracy theorists believe will soon pass the Earth, causing a global apocalypse.
News of the discovery of the new planet, currently called OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, has fired up believers of the Nibiru theory, that it could be proof of the fabled system. The Nibiru or Planet X theory claims a mini solar system consisting of a sun, planets and moons is lurking on the edge of our solar system with a huge 3,600 miles orbit of the sun. Nibiru believers are convinced the "rogue system" is making its way from the outer solar system inwards, where it will wreak havoc on Earth as it passes at about four million miles away. They say the planet will cause the poles to switch, sparking great earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. Believers now claim it will be on an approach path with the Earth between November 20 and December 20.
One user of conspiracy theory website Godlikeproductions.com, based in Australia, believes OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb could be proof of Nibiru. The user with the handle Daniel (D Alien) started a forum on the site entitled "Has Nibiru Been Hiding in the Heart of Our Galaxy All Along?," after learning of the news.
One person with the user name Anonymous replied: "Looks like no one really knows what is out there." However, others rounded on the forum creator for starting it. A third with the user name Anonymous Coward posted: "Please apply your mind. "Nibiru is an ordinary planet that will never orbit near here again and it hasn't been hiding anywhere."
Details of the new planet were published in a paper published on arXiv.org. It was found via microlensing, a technique for detecting alien worlds which does not require the light from its host star. And the technique is used to find planets in the inner galactic disk and bulge, where it can be hard to look for planets using other methods. Planet OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb was found by the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE) collaboration, a Polish astronomical project based at the University of Warsaw, using the 1.3 metre Warsaw telescope mounted at the Las Campanas observatory in Chile.
An international team of researchers led by Yoon-Hyun Ryu of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute in Daejon, South Korea, also looked at the findings. The team said in the paper: "We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which is likely to be the first Spitzer microlensing planet in the galactic bulge/bar, an assignation that can be confirmed by two epochs of high-resolution imaging of the combined source-lens baseline object." It is so big the team is not sure if it is actually a failed brown dwarf star instead of a giant planet. However, it orbits its parent star approximately every three years, 22,000 light years from Earth.
It is not the first new planet Nibiru believers have pounced upon. Earlier this year US space agency Nasa announced the discovery of a hypothetical Planet 9 at the edge of our solar system. The planet is believed to be 10 times bigger than Earth and 20 times farther out from the sun than Neptune – the outermost planet in the solar system. However, Nasa said it was not Nibiru, which "does not exist." In a statement, Nasa said: "If a planet is there, it's extremely distant and will stay that way, with no chance – in case you're wondering – of ever colliding with Earth, or bringing ‘days of darkness’.”
The Nibiru myth emerged in 1976, when writer Zecharia Sitchin claimed two ancient Middle Eastern cultures, the Babylonians and Sumerians, told of a giant planet dubbed Nibiru which orbited the Sun. Nasa insists the conspiracy theorists are completely wrong, and the Nibiru myth is an internet hoax.
Is This Nibiru? Huge Mystery Planet X Discovered In Milky Way
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