The Dark Star: The Planet X Evidence

by Andy Lloyd

  References

  1 C. Grady, E. Polomski, “The Disk and Environment of the Herbig Be Star HD 100546” Astronomical Journal, 122, 3396, 2001

  2 M. Clampin “HST/ACS Coronoagraphic Imaging of the Circumstellar Disk around HD 141569A” Submitted to The Astronomical Journal, May 2003, astroph/0303605v1

  3 J. Augereau & J. Papaloizou, “Structuring the HD141569A Circumstellar Dust Disk” Astronomy & Astrophysics, astroph/ 0310732, 2003

  4 A. Quillen, P. Varniere, I. Minchev & A. Frank, “Driving Spiral Arms in the Debris Disks of HD 100546 and HD141569A” Astronomical Journal, AJ, 2004

  5 A. Brunini & M. Melita “The Existence of a Planet beyond 50AU and the Orbital Distribution of the Classical Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects” Icarus, 160, pp32-43 (2002)

  6 Correspondence from Mario Melita, 15th January 2003

  7 S. Ida, J. Larwood & A. Burkert “Evidence for Early Stellar encounters in the orbital distribution of Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects” The Astrophysical Journal, 528, 351-356, (2000)

  8 A. Quillen, D. Trilling & E. Blackman “The Impact of a Close Stellar Encounter on the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt” arXiv:astroph/ 0401372vl, 2004

  9 J.J. Matese, P.G. Whitman and D.P. Whitmire, “Cometary Evidence of a Massive Body in the Outer Oort Cloud” Icarus, 141, 354-336 (1999)

  10 Correspondence from A. Quillen, 18th February 2004, Reproduced with kind permission

  11 Correspondence from A. Quillen, 19th February 2004, Reproduced with kind permission

  12 J. Murray “Arguments for the Presence of a Distant large Undiscovered Solar System Planet” Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc., 309, 31-34 (1999)

  13 New Scientist "Rogue star smashed up the solar system" Vol 18, 2433, 7th February 2004, p19, Thanks to Shad Bolling, http://www.amnesium.com. Here's the paper's on-line abstract: http://arxiv.org/abs/astroph/0401372

  14 D. Allan & J. Delair “When the Earth Nearly Died: Compelling Evidence of a World Cataclysm 11,500 years ago” pp252-3, Gateway Books 1995

  15 B. Arnett “The Interplanetary Medium” 2002, http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/medium.html

  16 Wikipedia “Heliopause” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heliopause

  17 C. Kitchin “Aurorae on Other Planets” Astronomy Now, p62, Mar 2004

  18 T. Phillips "Puzzling X-rays from Jupiter" http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2002/07mar_jupiterpuzzle.htm

  19 Gladstone, et al, "A Pulsating Auroral X-ray Hot Spot on Jupiter" Nature (v. 415) 28th Feb. 2002

  20 A. Gilbert & M. Cotterell “The Mayan Prophecies” Appendix 4: 'The Sunspot Cycle' p288-300, Element 1995

  21 Correspondence from Maurice Cotterell, 13th September 2002, reproduced with kind permission

  22 R. Day “Teotihuacan and the Tenth Planet” Abstracted from the unpublished manuscript 'Nibiru Planet X: Evidence from Antiquity', 1998, pp42-3

  15. Sedna

  So far, we have looked at the historic search for Planet X, and renewed speculation about the potential for a binary companion object orbiting the sun. Work in this field, both academic and alternative has been going on for many years and, under these circumstances, it is natural for a certain air of despondency to hang over the very concept of Planet X. In times gone by, many astronomers refused to even consider it to be a possibility, despite the growing mass of evidence we have looked at in this book.

  So it must have come as a bit of a shock to them when a bona fide Planet X was actually discovered in 2004! Not only has it opened many commentators' eyes to the possibility of yet more planetary objects awaiting discovery, but it has raised questions about some of Science's basic assumptions about the nature of our solar system. Something very odd is going on out there...

  “Sedna” is the name given by astronomers for this newest planet to be discovered orbiting the sun. Although the details of the size of the planet are still being sought, it is thought to be about 1,300 miles in diameter and could be of a similar size to Pluto. Given that Pluto is generally accepted to be a planet in its own right, Sedna technically becomes the tenth planet to be found orbiting the sun.

  NASA had previously hinted about an announcement planned for Monday, 15th March 2004, to be given by Dr. Michael Brown of Caltech.1 His team had recently discovered another large Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt object called 2004 DW, details of which had been released in February 2004.2 His research team makes use of the recently launched Spitzer Space Telescope. At that time, he made the following tantalizing comment:

  "It's now only a matter of time before something is going to be discovered out there that will change our entire view of the outer solar system."

  It turns out that Dr. Brown wasn't simply speculating on a remote possibility. His astronomical research team, including Chad Trujillo in Hawaii and David Rabinowitz of Yale University, had discovered the presence of Sedna back in November 2003, and were busy preparing their paper for a public announcement of the find. It had been catalogued as object 2003 VB12.

  I had picked up on this development in early March, and I hinted on some astronomical websites that the forthcoming announcement chalked in for 15th March could turn out to be important regarding the Planet X question.

  Even so, I was still amazed to hear the news of this announcement on BBC radio on the Monday morning, preceding the actual press conference.3 It enabled me to relay this news onto the Internet through my website, as the USA was waking up in the morning.

  I consider the scientific discovery of Sedna to be a major step forward in the hunt for a massive Planet X. It has forced many nay-sayers to rethink completely.

  The Tenth Planet?

  Sedna is currently located in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, some 13 billion km from the sun3, or about 85 Astronomical Units ― which is about three times more distant than Pluto. This places it actually within the Kuiper Gap, or Kuiper Cliff, an area unexpectedly devoid of predicted objects. Perhaps it may partially help to explain the lack of companions out at this distance, although it is too small in practice to have swept the Belt clean by itself.

  However, although it is located here, it may actually be an object from the distant Oort Cloud of comets. At the moment it is nearing perihelion, which has brought it into the Kuiper Belt. It is the most distant object to have been located orbiting the sun.

  It appears to be following an elliptical orbit of between 10 and 12 thousand years duration. Its orbital path is highly eccentric, with a perihelion of 76 AU and an aphelion in the region of 1000 AU.4,5 Thus, astronomers were only able to spot Sedna because it was fortuitously nearing perihelion (which it will actually achieve in 2076). For the most part, Sedna would have been too distant for telescopes to detect. This highly elliptical shaped path is very similar to the kind of orbit envisioned for Nibiru.

  However, size-wise, Sedna is too small to be Zecharia Sitchin's Nibiru, and its orbital period is three times as long. Nor is this rocky, icy world anything approaching the size of a 'Dark Star', although it is remarkably red. Whether it is directly connected with Nibiru or not, it is a thrilling discovery, having been confirmed by astronomers at the Tenagra Observatory in Arizona, and then directly imaged by the Hubble Space Telescope.3

  The planet was then named "Sedna", after the Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit Sea Goddess.6 This mythical Sea Spirit partially takes the form of a woman, who sends out her animals to hunt from her lair on the seabed.7 There is certainly some symbolic relevance to this choice of name.

  Firstly, the Arctic myth is metaphorically in keeping with the ultra-cold environment of the outer solar system. Secondly, this new planet is readily associated with other similar, but smaller objects in the scattered disc of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. These distant EKBOs also emerge from the darkness of the Abyss during perihelion, appearing like transient hunters from the Void. The name "Sedna" is clearly a perfect choice!

  One might argue that the actual discovery of Sedna is not entirely unexpected, in that new technology is helping astronomers to look deeper into the void beyond Plut
o to search out dark objects, some of them clearly sizable. If Sedna turns out to be as large as Pluto, which is still possible, then it would properly be called a planet. However, this is likely to re-ignite debate about what a planet really is, and whether Pluto itself is simply a large, spheroid-shaped asteroid, accompanied by its relatively large 'moon' Charon.

  At the moment, it is thought to be smaller than Pluto, but bigger than another substantial EKBO called Quaoar, so it is by no means certain what will be decided for it in time. After all, officially adding to the sun's retinue of planets would mean the re-writing of school books, let alone those of science. Who's to say how many more Sednas are still out there?

  Sedna is currently near to its closest approach to the sun, or its 'perihelion'. The outer portion of its highly elliptical orbit falls within the boundary of the inner Oort Cloud, meaning that its entire orbit occupies the substantial gap between the EKB and the Oort Cloud. Because the position of the Oort Cloud is still largely theoretical, findings like this add to the fledgling body of evidence actually describing it.

  So the discovery of Sedna, and other 'scattered disc objects' will lead astronomers to reconsider the position of the comet-cloud. For example, Dr. Brown now speculates that the inner Oort Cloud may be closer than once thought, having arisen as a result of the action of a rogue star near to the sun.4 This is reminiscent of the argument for the existence, whether past or present, of a binary companion.

  Speculation about the existence of a binary star at the early point in the solar system's history is now bound to grow, as will the possibility that the sun was once subject to a stellar "fly-by". As a result, the outer solar system is starting to look like a very interesting place indeed, fueling interest and research efforts among the astronomical community.

  So what can we expect next; Planet XI, Planet XII, Planet XIII...? Is there an Earth-sized planet out there that might have something to do with this gap in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt? Is there something even larger further out, like a binary 'Dark Star', that may still be lurking among the comets?

  No one knows for sure, but what is likely is that discoveries will continue to be made, as the ability of astronomers to discover increasingly dark and distant objects orbiting the sun improves. The pace of those discoveries is also likely to accelerate.

  Anomalies Fuel Scientific Speculation

  I have hinted above that there are several anomalous aspects to this discovery, not least of which is Sedna's orbit. It is simply not behaving as it should, at least according to the model of the solar system used by astronomers. To have such an elliptical orbit, it would have to have been pulled out of an ancient circular orbit by some other, massive object. Yet no such object is known to exist out there, and the potential existence of an undiscovered massive object has long been dismissed by astronomers.

  Sedna's discovery has lead to new speculation amongst some of the biggest names in planetary science. As we have seen, the leader of the team who discovered Sedna, Dr. Michael Brown, has questioned whether the previously accepted position of the inner Oort Cloud is correct - and wonders whether the sun formed in a star cluster whose brethren may have dragged minor planets like Sedna into eccentric orbits.8 Other astronomers, each with their own pet theories about the outer solar system, have contributed other ideas - like the effect of a passing star, or interaction with Gigantic Molecular Clouds.

  Perhaps surprisingly, the director of the Minor Planet Centre, Dr. Brian Marsden, has gone on record speculating about the existence of a terrestrial-sized planet, or bigger, several hundred AU away.8 The idea still leaves open the question of how the planet could have formed at that distance, but such a body might provide a mechanism whereby Sedna's own orbit became so eccentric. At some point, Sedna must have interacted with a larger planetary body - flinging it into its now wildly elongated orbit.

  It is clear that the notion of a terrestrial-sized planet X is now taking hold within the astronomical community, even though it still faces the same problem encountered before by Brunini and Melita. They argued for an embedded planet in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt.9 Their proposed body led to quite a reasonable match for the truncation of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, particularly, as it turns out, with a more eccentric orbit for such a planet.10 But the lingering question of its lack of discovery is an urgent and difficult one.

  If the undiscovered planet lies further out, towards the inner Oort Cloud, it must be more substantial in size to create the same effect on EKBO orbits, which is why Dr. Marsden opts for a multiple-Earth-mass planet. But then, how did such a body form in this region of low density of matter? The problem continues to deepen with every turn.

  We also have the question of whether the truncation of the Edgeworth-Kuiper Disc was caused by a very massive object. Models of stellar fly-bys can produce some, but not all, of the observed effects.11 In the last chapter, we saw that a Jupiter-plus sized object in an eccentric orbit could create the truncated disc, although Dr. Quillen, who carried out the work, doubts whether one could still be out there. I am not so sure, particularly given Sedna's orbital properties. Sedna seems to call for a more urgent reappraisal of the situation in the outer solar system.

  Could a very substantial planet still be out there and have evaded detection? I have argued that that is the case on several occasions12, and this view seems to have been backed up by Dr. Brown's analysis of previous searches, like IRAS. He has stated that there is an area in the sky covering about 20% of the celestial sphere, which has not been properly searched for a hidden planet orbiting the sun.

  This region lies in the direction of the Milky Way - specifically, towards the centre of our galaxy.8 This is, of course, the region that I have already highlighted as being the most probable location for the Dark Star, i.e. in the vicinity of the constellation Sagittarius.

  This area is a prime hunting ground for the Dark Star for a number of reasons, not the least of which are textual references to Sagittarius being the direction the mythical planet departs towards.12,13 There are other, more scientific reasons for considering this region for a candidate object, as already discussed in the Chapter, Binary Companion.

  One could be forgiven for thinking that things are dovetailing together. Does Sedna's strange orbit give us reason to think that a massive body lies in a region of the sky that previous sky searches simply neglected? Dr. Brown certainly thinks there might be a planet lying in the direction of the galactic core, and his team are actively searching in that region for one (8). This is a much more difficult task than one might imagine.

  Apart from anything else, the planet's relative motion against the background of the galactic stars will be very slow. It might very much appear as if it's standing still, particularly if its orbit is like Sedna's, and highly elliptical. Under those circumstances, the greatest proportion of its movement will be towards us. Its lateral movement in the sky will be slight, meaning that it is quite possible that it has already been detected, but then incorrectly catalogued as a galactic star.

  'Star Wars' fans might wonder whether this missing planet is similar to Kamino; in this case the missing planet may well turn out to have been in the archive all along!

  A Correlation

  Sedna, currently moving towards perihelion, has been found close to where I have argued for the sky location of the perihelion transit of Nibiru (near Sirius and Orion). Sedna is currently moving from the constellation Cetus towards Taurus, which is a pro-grade motion across the sky. I think this closely mirrors the likely motion of the Dark Star through the sky when it is close to perihelion. This 'coincidence' seems remarkable, given the other factors involved here. One has to wonder whether the orbits of Sedna and the Dark Star are closely linked.

  Such a situation could possibly exist, because bodies in the outer solar system tend to establish orbital correlations between each other. These are called "mean motion resonances".14 Pluto has a commensurate orbit with Neptune, for instance, in this case a 2:3 mean motion resonance. Many of the Ed
geworth-Kuiper Belt Objects have similar resonance ratios with Neptune.

  So if the Dark Star is orbiting the sun in the outer solar system, and if it is a substantial planet (and I advocate a sub-brown dwarf, a sub-stellar class of planet that has been theoretically modeled15) then it will interact with the other celestial bodies within the considerable sweep of its eccentric orbit.

  Over time, Nibiru would have ejected many so-called scattered disc objects (and the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt is known to be massively depleted), causing the truncation of the EKB - and those objects that remain in its sphere of influence may have taken on resonant orbits with it. This assumes, of course, that it is still there! So, it is certainly not beyond reason that Sedna is in a resonant orbit with a much larger planet that remains to be found. If so, their orbital periods should correlate in some way.

  When discussing the orbit of Nibiru, Zecharia Sitchin proposed that it was about 3,600 years, synchronous with the fundamental number in the Sumerian sexigesimal numbering system of 3,600, or 1 'Sar'.13 Two orbits would thus take place over about 7,200 years, three over 10,800 years. Sedna's orbital period is between 10 and 12 thousand years. So, Sedna may turn out to have a 3:1 mean motion resonance with Sitchin's Nibiru.

  This could be an important finding. As astronomers study Sedna's orbit more closely, their data will enable them to work out its actual orbital period more exactly. If I am right, then other scattered disc objects will also be discovered in the future, which will share similar mean motion resonances as Sedna. From the data that amasses over time, a picture will emerge of the orbit of the parent body itself; the Dark Star. In a way, these wandering sheep are moving to the shepherd's tune, and we can start to figure out more about this shepherd by analyzing their trails.