The Dark Star: The Planet X Evidence

by Andy Lloyd

  Further evidence for cataclysms occurring during periods of dramatic climate change is attested to elsewhere.12 Essentially, Earth-crust displacement encapsulates a theoretical spinning of the thin crust around the Earth, known as the lithosphere, around the rest of the body of the planet. It's sudden occurrence would be cataclysmic, and the Canadian researchers Rand and Rose Flem-Ath have cited geological and mythological evidence to support their proposition that the last Ice Age finished, suddenly, in the 11th Millennium BC.12,13,14 The idea that the entire crust of the Earth slips catastrophically is, of course, a radical one. Now, it may be that the Milankovitch Cycle offers a more robust solution to the problems addressed by Hancock and others, because the Milankovitch model fits with the patterns of cyclical change between Ice Ages and Interglacials within the last Ice Epoch. However, do all of these changes involve such apocalyptic changes as those recorded about 11,000 years ago? Does this date mark a quite different transition into a new permanently warmer period, or was it simply one of many incremental adjustments to the world's climate, as the Earth's wobble and eccentricity predictably shifted into a different phase of the Milankovitch Cycle?

  The Big Question

  The area of real concern for me is whether the catastrophic end of the last Ice Age some 11,000 years ago marked a shift into a new Interglacial period, or whether it catastrophically plunged the Earth out of the long-standing Ice Epoch. If it is the latter, which seems likely, given the scientific evidence cited by many catastrophists, as well as in the traditions recorded by many ancient peoples in their myths, then the complete recession of the 4 million year old Ice Epoch should eventually lead us towards a point where all of the world's ice disappears over time, and global warming gets a firm grip on the entire planet.

  The ice caps will become a thing of the past once again, and the planet's global climate will return to the sort of warmth that allowed the dinosaurs to thrive, even at the poles of the Earth! It's an alarming thought.

  These complex issues are not new. Before the realization dawned on the scientific community, and our wider society, about the consequences of accelerated global warming, the consensus was that the Earth would likely cool again. This was because the interglacial period currently enjoyed was simply one of a number of such warm intermissions, set within a three to four million year long Ice Epoch. Those interglacial periods were determined solely by orbital considerations, in other words, the Milankovitch Cycles. Because previous interglacial periods had begun to wind up after about 10,000 years, then it was expected that glaciers would start to grow once again during this modern period.

  However, more recent research has indicated that this is by no means a 'normal' interglacial period. In fact, our world has continued to slowly warm long after it should have started to cool. It has been suggested that this shift from the normal climate-change pattern, associated so closely with the Milankovitch Cycle, began as long ago as 6000 BCE. Concentrations of carbon dioxide and methane in the atmosphere are already starting to appear anomalously high 8,000 years ago, and have continued that trend since then.

  Although the cause is not known, it seems clear that the general principle of the Milankovitch Cycle, that has dominated our global climate for 4 million years, has been broken. Such a change is coincident with the ascendance of human civilization, and has been linked to the invention and early promulgation of agriculture.16 But it should also be remembered that Ice Epochs have drawn to a close before. Humans were not around at those points in time. Such major shifts in global climate call for solutions related to the Earth's place in the Cosmos.

  The scientific community has a fairly detailed record of Earth's geo-history that shows that it is incredibly unstable as far as climate is concerned, and that breath-taking changes can occur in just decades. This adds uncertainty to an already chaotic picture regarding the Earth's present global climate changes. That uncertainty means that science cannot predict whether the Earth will warm steadily towards a runaway greenhouse effect, or whether the balance of climate regulation on the planet will be self-correcting, or whether we will eventually be plunged back into a new Ice Age.

  This is why it is so vital to discover whether there is a Dark Star orbiting the sun. If there is, as I firmly believe, then I contend that its presence is the causal factor between the comings and goings of Ice Epochs. Put simply, the Earth's distance from the sun should no longer be considered a constant, but is instead a variable. During periods of hundreds of millions of years, it was close enough to the sun to banish all ice from the surface of this planet.

  We may now be returning to those times. During the Ice Epochs, the Earth orbited slightly further away from the sun. This caused the inter-continental glaciers to form, broken up occasionally only by the vagaries of the Earth's wobbles and eccentricities.

  The reason why the Earth's radius of orbit varies is because of the instability of the Dark Star's own loosely-bound orbit. The energies of the orbits of all the planets in the solar system are necessarily interwoven, and the Dark Star holds the key to them all. If the Earth is now warming up out of a four million-year old Ice Epoch, then it reasonable to assume that Mars is similarly warming from its own Ice Epoch. Maybe that explains recent evidence of water movements on the red planet.

  Venus should also be warming catastrophically, perhaps implying that during its own “Colder Epoch” conditions on this inner planet were once not so extreme. (It would be quite wrong to associate the word “ice” with Venus. A colder period on this hellish planet would simply amount to turning the oven temperature down a notch.)

  If we have fully emerged from the last Ice Epoch, rather than simply enjoying a warm interglacial interlude, then this is directly attributable to a fairly recent shift in the orbit of the Dark Star. The consequences of this shift are significant.

  It would mean that the complete ice caps of the planet Earth are under considerable threat. This threat has been massively added to by our own industrial activities of the last few hundred years. The coastal and lowlying areas of the Earth's landmasses will become permanently flooded as the caps melt, probably catastrophically at some point...maybe soon.

  Our planet as a whole is going to be getting a lot warmer - whether we inadvertently contribute to that effect or not - through our emissions of greenhouse gases. This is a very serious situation, one whose understanding rests completely upon the detection of the sun's binary solar companion. There is simply no time to waste.

  References

  1 J. Hills “The Passage of a “Nemesis”-like Object through the Planetary System” Astron. J. 90, 1876 (1985)

  2 Correspondence with Dr. Daniel Whitmire and Dr. John Matese, 5th March 2001, reproduced with their permission given at the time of correspondence.

  3 B. Greene “The Elegant Universe” Jonathan Cape 1999

  4 Correspondence with Dr. R. Fitzpatrick, 29th January 2002

  5 J. Gribbin & M. Gribbin “Ice Age” Allen Lane, the Penguin Press 2001

  6 Grayson (Ed) “Equinox: The Earth”: 'Ice Warriors' by P. Simons, pp126-7, Channel 4 Books, 2000

  7 Jet Propulsion Laboratory “Scientists see Earth Move in Antarctica” http://geodynamics.jpl.nasa.gov/antarctica/mblproject.html 14th December 2000

  8 M. Edwards “Glacial Records Depict Ice Age Climate In Synch Worldwide” National Science Foundation 24/3/04, With thanks to James Monds

  9 Horizon “Snowball Earth” Shown on BBC2, 22nd Feb 2001

  10 Illinois State Museum “Ice Ages” http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/ice_ages/

  11 G. Hancock “Fingerprints of the Gods” p490-495 Mandarin 1995

  12 D.S. Allan & J.B. Delair “When the Earth Nearly Died” p16, Gateway Books, Bath 1995

  13 R. & R. Flem-Ath “Atlantis and the Earth's Shifting Crust” http://www.flem-ath.com/del1.htm

  14 R. & R. Flem-Ath “When the Sky Fell” Stoddart, Canada 1995

  15 R. Flem-Ath & C. Wilson “The Atlantis Blueprint” Warner 2001

&nbs
p; 16 W. Ruddiman “How did Humans First Alter Global Climate?” Scientific American, Vol. 292, No. 3, p34-41, March 2005

  19. Is This Our Nemesis?

  In this book I have set out my own particular view of the Dark Star. I have placed this within its proper historical setting, drawing upon the various other ideas about Planet X, which have been talked about by scientists and members of the general public alike. My Dark Star is very similar to the concept of Nemesis, at least in terms of its stellar qualities. However, my Dark Star is right at the bottom of the range of objects that might constitute Nemesis.

  In the mid 1980s, the concept of a binary companion called Nemesis was big news. Discussion about whether it could be a real possibility filled serious scientific journals of the day. It even made the front cover of Time magazine.1 Media coverage was not always particularly kind, probably because the idea seemed so speculative, yet awesome in its magnitude.

  I wonder whether people are all that comfortable with the thought that scientists might be able to predict apocalyptic events through their study of astronomy. Perhaps it drags Science into the realm of Religion, especially the controversial Christian vision of “Armageddon”. This is an area that many scientists themselves feel less than comfortable delving into. So, it is little wonder that scorn was also poured upon the “Nemesis” theory by many scientists at that time.

  Dr. Richard Muller, one of the scientists who first proposed “Nemesis”2, still thinks that the hypothesis remains viable, despite a widespread misconception that the case for Nemesis had been disproved. He concedes that the orbital path of Nemesis would be currently unstable. However, its variability over time answers this problem because, as his astronomical colleague Piet Hut showed, its initial lifetime at the beginning of the solar system was 6 billion years.1

  I think that Dr. Muller is quite right to argue that the case for Nemesis is still an open one. Indeed, our more up-to-date knowledge of brown dwarfs has re-ignited the debate. I think that Nemesis is a very small brown dwarf, not a significantly larger red or brown dwarf as initially envisioned. That makes questions about its current lack of detection easier to counter.

  But, that's where my agreement with the Nemesis theorists ends. I don't think that an orbit of 26, or 30, million years is the answer. Instead, I see a much closer bound object as a more viable prospect. An orbit of thousands of years, rather than millions, makes more sense.

  It seems to me that the extinction cycle, proposed by Raup and Sepkoski3, remains unproven, because the data it relies upon is too narrow in its scope. It may turn out to be correct in time, perhaps as our knowledge of cratering patterns on other worlds adds to this data. However, I would argue that we should not pin the whole of the Nemesis/Dark Star argument onto the back of this particular beast. The alleged cyclical pattern of comet bombardment may be a statistical illusion. Profound changes to our planet over time are not.

  In the Chapter,Ice Age, I proposed that the variability of the Dark Star was itself the causal factor for catastrophe. The nature of its loosely bound, eccentric orbit leads to change over time that has momentous implications for climate and life on this planet. I hope that this concept may help to move the debate about Nemesis onto a new footing. After all, the stakes could hardly be greater. There are changes afoot on planet Earth which urgently require an explanation.

  A Modern Catastrophe

  Mankind has an amazing propensity for self-inflicted wounds, but our appetite for destruction sometimes pales into insignificance, when placed against the kinds of disasters occurring in Nature. The tsunami unleashed by the shifting of tectonic plates below the Indian Ocean on 26th December, 2004, killed thousands along many stretches of coastline in the area. The plight caused by this catastrophe seemed to capture the sympathy of our entire global population: billions of dollars were raised by the general public, shaming governments whose initial reactions were less then forthcoming.

  The cause of this tragedy is a reminder of the fragility of our life on this planet, and how close we may all be to potential disaster. For decades, Catastrophists have argued the case for there having been repeated devastation of our world in prehistorical times. They wonder whether our emergence from caves to civilization may not have been the smooth and relatively recent transition alluded to in the history textbooks. Many have wondered whether our progress has been less graduated, more stop/start; that our human predecessors may have repeatedly fallen afoul of natural disasters that have affected our planet and environment.

  This latest disaster affected coastal areas peripheral to the epicenter of the sub-oceanic earthquake, which measured 9.0 on the Richter scale. A collapse of the sea bed caused a ripple effect across the Indian Ocean that culminated in 30 foot waves in shallow waters: these waves then crashed into islands and coastal areas causing devastation. It seems difficult to imagine a worse scenario.

  Yet, similar events in recorded history have seen tsunamis substantially greater, culminating in the movement of oceanic waters deeper into land areas.

  It is a fact that human settlements have always preferred coastal areas to inhabit. Such areas are richer in good soils and wildlife, and generally enjoy less extreme climates than more inland, continental lands. But the risk associated with a substantial fraction of the human population living near coastal areas is that the sea might one day unleash devastation commonly affecting them all.

  Many have wondered: is it possible that a worldwide disaster might have been caused by a global tsunami? It would have to be a very substantial wave indeed, one that originated from a devastating catastrophe in oceanic waters. Not only that, but the epicenter of such an event would have to have been positioned in such a way, that the wave was able to access all oceans and seas without having its momentum broken by a substantial landmass. This could only have taken place, then, if the epicenter was in the Southern Oceans in the vicinity of Antarctica. And the most likely source of such an event would be an oceanic comet strike.2 15 million years ago, an asteroid greater than 1 kilometer in diameter, crashed into the South-East Pacific Ocean. Scientists have been able to draw this conclusion from evidence from the ocean floor, which shows damage over hundreds of square kilometers.4,5,6 The devastating impact created a massive tsunami that, after only five hours, was about 70 metres high. It continued from the impact point to move at the speed of an aircraft across the Pacific and South Atlantic Oceans, devastating coastal areas from Australia and Asia to South-West Africa.

  Comets and the Flood

  In the U.K. Government-funded “Report of the Task Force on Potentially Hazardous Near-Earth Objects”7, which was published in 2000, discusses the threat posed by tsunamis which are unleashed by asteroid impact. The tragic events of Christmas week, 2004, underline the potential catastrophe we all face.

  There are many, many Flood myths from around the globe. The Biblical account of Noah is not just a story popular in the Levant, but one whose telling spanned the ancient world. The Book of Enoch identifies seven burning stars with the Flood.8 Perhaps these were part of a comet swarm, or perhaps they were part of the observable phenomenon of Nibiru, or the Dark Star. Such an association sets off alarm bells in my head.

  However, scholars seem unwilling to give any credence to the idea that a worldwide catastrophe of this nature may actually have occurred in prehistorical times, leading to the extinction of many species. Yet, it is such a common myth across disparate cultures, that there is surely some truth to it. Scholars counter that such an event could not have occurred across the whole face of the planet, without some kind of evidence being left behind.

  However, it is the very nature of such sudden flooding, that little trace of the devastation remains long after the event. The damage is literally washed away, or left buried in a chaotic state.

  One of the surprising stories to emerge from the terrifying tsunami of 26th December, 2004, was the reaction to it by an undeveloped tribe of hunter-gatherers living on North Sentinel Island, among the Andaman Islands. The e
ntire tribe of 500 or so people survived the tsunami, having evacuated the coastal areas immediately following the initial earthquake. Madhusree Mukerjee, a researcher and author working among the Andamanese, spoke with tribesmen, who explained that their evacuation of the coastline before the tsunami struck happened because of warnings given to them by their forefathers. Their folklore advises the tribe to head for the hills, or out to sea in boats, when an earthquake occurs.9 The tribe clearly took that advice very seriously, saving many lives.

  This remarkable tale indicates the importance of orally transmitted folklore and teachings within any culture. Tsunamis are examples of rare catastrophic phenomena, yet this undeveloped tribal society held onto the warnings of dire consequences for many years following an earthquake. Our modern thinking has long since rubbished the warnings of the ancients about catastrophe. By ignoring the ever-present dangers ― our modern society ― through its misplaced skepticism, has foolishly turned its back on the wisdom handed down to us from the past.

  We should learn from this. There is great wisdom to be found in the writings of the ancients, and the orally transmitted tribal teachings. These teachings cannot replace our science, but they can, and should, complement our modern framework of knowledge.

  Running Out of Myths

  This loss of interest in our prehistorical roots, and the myths which abounded in those times, finds another analogy in the modern hunt for planets beyond Neptune. When astronomers began to catalogue the minor planets and asteroids in the solar system, they gave each a name. These names were derived from the pantheons of classical gods and goddesses, much like the more familiar names of the planets like Mars and Jupiter. However, as the number of known minor bodies in the solar system has expanded over time, the pool of available gods and goddesses to which they could be dedicated has dried up.