The Nibiru Hoax

If you were not aware, Earth will be destroyed in a terrible calamity in December, 2012. A mysterious planet, called Nibiru, will enter the inner solar system, and either collide directly with Earth, or pass so closely to it that Earth's electromagnetic and gravitational energies will be severely disrupted. Either event, of course, would result in the obliteration of life on Earth. Nibiru was discovered by both the ancient Sumerians and the ancient Mayans, and is the reason the Mayan calendar ends in 2012. NASA also knows about Nibiru, but all information is being withheld from the public, as part of a worldwide conspiracy. Earth's axis is already shifting because of Nibiru, as well as a slowing of time itself.

Everything in the preceding paragraph is a lie, if you didn't already figure that out for yourself. The Nibiru hoax has already made one pass through our world, when it was said to be striking Earth in May 2003. That time, a woman named Nancy Lieder, who claims to be able to channel mental messages from aliens, said she had received a warning about "Planet X" from the alien civilization of the star Zeta Reticuli. The warning was essentially the same material as the Nibiru hoax, and, of course, May 2003 came and went without incident.

However, surprise! Nibiru is back again; ready to end our world, again. As before, when pseudoscience, individuals wanting to exploit others (for fun, profit, or both) and the Internet are combined, the end result is legions of gullible believers.

David Morrison, senior scientist of the NASA Astrobiology Institute, often answers questions sent to NASA's "Ask an Astrobiologist" website, located here. Even this service has not been immune to inquiries from individuals fooled and frightened by the Nibiru hoax. In Skeptical Inquirer's article, 'The Myth of Nibiru', he says, "I hope this is my last comment on the Nibiru hoax, but questions like the above five keep coming in. Most of the entries on the Internet about Nibiru are false. Wikipedia has it correct when they write that "Nibiru is a name in Sumerian, Babylonian astrology associated with the god Marduk, generally accepted as referring to the planet Jupiter." The rest is a hoax, including all the "stuff" questioner #1 found on the Internet. Questioners #2 and #3 mention the astronomical observatory at the South Pole, but I assure you these astronomers are not looking at Nibiru. The Antarctic is a great place for infrared astronomical observations, and it also has the advantage that objects can be observed continuously without the interference of the day-night cycle. Questioners #3 and #4 seem to think that the government would hide information about Nibiru and the catastrophe coming in a few years, but I can't imagine why. My experience is, in fact, that sometimes parts of the government do just the opposite, as in the frequent references to various terrorist threats. In any case, the job of NASA scientists is to discover and tell the truth!"

Nibiru is a hoax. The planet does not exist, and is not, even as we speak, moving closer and closer to Earth. If, as Nibiru hoaxers claim, this planet's approach is causing disasters on Earth due to its electromagnetic and gravitational energy, how would this be any different from the energies exerted on Earth by all the other (and, in many cases, larger) planetary bodies in our solar system, to say nothing of the Sun? As for the claim that time is slowing down on Earth due to Nibiru, this fantastical claim can be disputed by anyone with a watch, to say nothing of atomic clock monitoring. Nor is NASA engaged in a conspiracy to conceal Nibiru from the world. What purpose would doing so serve? In addition, were such a large object as a planet actually moving so closely and rapidly towards Earth, immense amounts of light from the Sun reflecting from it would make it easily (and growingly) visible every night.

Nibiru, the hoax, has visited us once before, in 2003. Above all, please do not fall for anyone trying to sell you a book, DVD, or 'survival kit' on, about, or related to Nibiru. Like all hoaxes, Nibiru exists, at least in part, as a ploy to soak money from the gullible and the frightened. That is the real conspiracy. Don't be fooled.Source Cited:

David Morrison, The Myth of Nibiru and the End of the World in 2012