Nibiru (planet)
Nibiru (also known Niburu) is a word that comes from the Akkadian language and means “ford”, “place of transition” or “ferry”. In astronomical and mythical context, it is a celestial body. In Babylonian mythology it is associated with the god Marduk. In some Babylonian astronomical texts Nibiru identified as the planet Jupiter[1].
Nibiru as a planet myth
The writers Zecharia Sitchin and Burak Eldem refers to Sumerian language texts that Nibiru is a planet[2] that, once every 3600 years[3], enters our solar system cortex. The planet would follow an orbit leading it between Jupiter and Mars before it starts its way back into the unknown space. Followers of the Sitchin and Eldems theory fear the passage of Niburu for the earthquakes, tidal waves, food shortages, diseases, meteorites and volcanic eruptions that it will make. This is because the Sumerian texts speak of a similar event, about 11,000 years before the birth of Jesus Christ. In biblical terms this event is known as the deluge.
According Sitchins and Eldems’ interpretation of Sumerian clay tablets, The Sumerian people gathered all their knowledge through a visit from the Anunnaki (the people that inhabited the planet Nibiru). The Anunnaki allegedly predicted the return of the planet Nibiru in the year 2012[4], and that this would entail a radical change for life on earth. This would all happen within a period of 5 years - starting in 2008. The descriptions of the planet Nibiru is in many writings of the Mesopotamian peoples, although under different names such as Marduk. The planet is equated to Planet X by Sitchin and Eldem.
Belief in the myth
There are people who believe in the myth of the Annunaki aliens from the planet Nibiru[5]. These people view this as an alternative creation story.
Public fear
After some people started to distribute made up conspiracy videos and documents about planet Nibiru many believers started to fear for their life. NASA Ames Research Center and NASA's new Lunar Science Institute interim director David Morrison told Discovery Channel that he gets now 20-25 emails per week concerning about end of the world in 2012. He stated that most people have taken the approach "If NASA denies it - it must be true" so it's impossible now to give them any satisfactory answers. He does not sound positive on hopes that Nibiru will turn into a teaching moment and people will understand that this is just an Internet hoax to cash-in for various products (i.e books and a film that happens to come to theaters exactly on the "right time"). According to the last hoax planet Nibiru should have destroyed earth in 2003 [6] . Some conspirators have mixed their story with Planet X to make things even more confusing because any unknown planet can be named X - planet Pluto was named "Planet X" during the first half of the 20th century.
References
- ^ http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/ask-an-astrobiologist/question/?id=2759
- ^ http://xfacts.com/x1.htm
- ^ http://web.archive.org/web/19990424070620/www.crystalinks.com/sitchen.html
- ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/space/my-take/nibiru-armageddon-david-morrison.html
- ^ http://www.geocities.com/transition7/planetX
- ^ http://dsc.discovery.com/space/my-take/nibiru-armageddon-david-morrison.html
External links
- http://dsc.discovery.com/space/my-take/nibiru-armageddon-david-morrison.html
- http://www.apollonius.net/nibiru.html
- http://xfacts.com/x1.htm
- http://www.cassiopaea.org/cass/sitchin.htm
- http://starchild.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/StarChild/questions/question4.html
- http://www.badastronomy.com/bad/misc/planetx/nutshell.html
- http://www.skepsis.nl/nibiru.html
- http://www.sitchiniswrong.com/
- http://www.rvu.nl/rvu.php?i=1&l=0&n=168
- http://www.rvu.nl/rvu.php?i=0&n=229
- http://web.planet.nl/music/specials/aardverhaal/