by Andy Lloyd
This problem is worsened if one considers the possible requirement of a name of a major god for a potential major planet. This problem has been recently tested by the discoveries of various Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects whose sizes have begun to compete with Pluto itself. Names of gods from pantheons of other religions have been used, of which the Inuit “Sedna” is a good example. But if the discovery was of a planet bigger than Pluto, then shouldn't that planet be named after a classical god or goddess from Greek or Roman mythology?
The discovery of a 'real' tenth planet has recently highlighted this problem, as well as raising some further controversy for the Planet X debate. The planet, officially designated 2003 UB313, was found by Dr Mike Brown and colleagues using the Samuel Oschin Telescope at Palomar Observatory near San Diego, California.10 It is the most distant object yet found in the solar system, currently lying almost 100 times the distance from the Earth to the sun.
It is incredibly difficult to spot a planet at this distance. Indeed, this new world still cannot be picked out by the powerful Spitzer telescope, despite a good knowledge of its whereabouts. Its fortuitous discovery results from the high reflectivity of its icy surface, without which it would certainly have remained hidden. Again, this very large scattered disc object has an elliptical orbit, falling in line with several other lesser objects discovered recently. Have these eccentric scattered disc objects have been affected by an influence beyond that of mighty Neptune? It seems reasonable to think so.
This emerging trend also suggests that larger bodies almost certainly await discovery, each with its own remarkable degree of eccentricity. The elliptical orbits of these scattered disc objects seem to be the reason why such large planetary bodies have been so difficult to spot. This, of course, is why the Dark Star has remained undetected, for the moment at least.
2003 UB313 is not just bigger than Pluto, it is also a planet of similar character. One would expect it to be justly called the solar system's Tenth Planet.
At the moment, 2003 UB313 does not have an official name. It appears that the planet's discoverers have offered up the name 'Xena', after the character from the fictional television series of the same name.11 This suggestion breaks the mould of planetary nomenclature, and will certainly provoke controversy among professional astronomers. Personally, I quite like the name. It has a certain ring to it, and gives the impression of moving off in a new direction, which Planet X research does, of course. But I'm not sure that it will be very acceptable to the authorities charged with a final decision.
Quixotically, they may even decide that, although 'Xena' is a planet larger than Pluto, it is not really a 'tenth planet' proper after all, and that giving it a rather trivial name symbolically down-grades its importance. So, dependent upon the philosophical stance taken over how to categorize planets, the non-classical 'Xena' might prove to be useful nomenclature after all...
The name eventually attributed to 2003 UB313 will depend upon whether it is actually classified as a major or minor planet. Given that it is larger than Pluto, one would have thought that should be incontrovertible. Pluto, after all, doggedly remains a 'major planet'.
However, this discovery may be the first among many. If every round chunk of rock and ice larger than Pluto in the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt were to be classified as a major planet, then one could imagine a situation where the science books need to list literally dozens of 'planets' in the solar system in a just few years time! You can see why astronomers have a dilemma on their hands.
Secrecy And Astronomy
You might have wondered why astronomers would announce the discovery of a brand new planet without being in a position to give it a proper name. Its technical name implies initial discovery in 2003, actually before Sedna whose designation is 2003 VB12. The realization that this new Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Object was actually a planet in its own right did not occur until 8th January 2005, however. From that point onwards, Mike Brown and his team worked with at least two different telescopes to collect the cast-iron evidence needed to make the discovery public.
During this time, they kept their discovery secret. However, technical information about 'Xena' was being held on computer databases by the research team, and it transpired that this 'secure' data was actually available over the Internet for anyone with sufficient technical knowledge to find their way around the databases.
Dr Mike Brown then discovered to his horror that someone had clandestinely accessed that database, which meant that someone with an astronomical background could work backwards through his data and 'discover' Xena independently, before his team made their planned announcement. Mike Brown was forced to release his findings prematurely, which inevitably stole some of his thunder.12
Given that 'Xena' had been catalogued for over 18 months prior to the public announcement of its planet-hood, could one argue that all such astronomical discoveries are being deliberately kept from the public? Does Nibiru appear on a database somewhere, quietly mulled over by a research group somewhere? Are we being kept in the dark about Planet X?
Such considerations are far from fanciful, but the issues involved are admittedly rather complex.
Releasing information about the discovery of new EKBOs is fraught with difficulties. Spotting new dots of light on CCD camera images, and capturing enough data to actually specify orbits and sizes of new objects are two entirely separate things. Sometimes it proves difficult to re-find objects that have previously been identified.
This might seem difficult to believe, given the technical power of the instruments used nowadays. However, these objects are being resolved at the very limits of the instruments' power, and the quality of scans over a period of time will vary with atmospheric conditions, and such like. Some potential objects are simply seen once, and then never seen again. Without a history of sightings mapping out an actual trajectory for the object over time, there is no discovery to speak of. An entire planet might blink in and out at the edge of resolution.
In addition, the more distant the object, the slower is its procession across the sky. This is because its orbital period is that bit longer. This perhaps explains why a Nemesis object is so difficult to pinpoint. Its lateral motion across the sky is so slow that it is readily mistaken for a stationary background star, and catalogued as such.
After all, the stars themselves are dynamic, revolving around the galactic core like celestial carousel horses. Nothing in the universe is truly at rest. So establishing what is distant, and what is relatively nearby is not as straightforward as one might imagine. As we have discussed in a previous chapter, even the heat signatures of objects located on an infrared search might be less easy to verify than one might think, with many objects being pinpointed but never properly identified or researched.
So an object might be initially classified in 2003, but it may take a couple of years of painstaking work to establish enough factual data to allow other scientists, and the general public, to accept this object as a new planet. Scientists who rush through this kind of process are liable to find egg on their faces.
That said, the issue of secrecy remains. Even if we can appreciate the complexities of the scientific work being undertaken here, and the need to verify the work before writing up a paper for a journal, the fact remains that discoveries of new planets in the solar system will be kept secret temporarily. This may be fine if the discovery of Planet X is merely of academic interest.
However, there is an aspect to this work that transcends the science involved. There are so many different ideas about the significance of Planet X that it's difficult to cover all of them in detail here, but it's worthwhile appraising the possibilities briefly.
The Consequences of Discovery
During the heady days of the 2003 Planet X controversy, many researchers claimed that the imminent threat of a perihelion passage of this object could bring about global devastation. The most likely cause of such cataclysms, it was argued, would be comet showers of Biblical magnitude. Planet X carri
es with it an entire system of comets, asteroids and even moons and planets. Despite the vast distances over which the solar system is laid out, such an enormous retinue of potential impactors offers us a phenomenal threat.
If the comets don't get us, then another possibility is that the sun's activity will shift into a different gear as a result of the presence of Planet X amongst the planets. Massive solar super-storms would destroy communications globally and send our climate into meltdown. Perhaps the magnetic poles would reverse, or at least shift dramatically, bringing along unknown consequences for life on this planet. Another possibility is that the incoming swarms of comets might bring with them viruses which descend like a deadly plague through our atmosphere.
For these reasons, argued the doom-sayers of Planet X lore, we should take due precautions against the end of the world.
If you place the secrecy of the discovery of Planet X into this context, then it is easy to see how a major conspiracy theory can emerge. Let us entertain the possibility that the Government is well aware of the existence of Nibiru, the Dark Star, Nemesis...call it what you will. Let us say that they also recognize the threat posed by such an entity, and are charged with keeping our society free from the kind of panic which could emerge if the worst case scenarios listed above were, in fact, for real. Well, it seems plain to me that full public knowledge of the discovery of Planet X and its terrifying implications would be actively suppressed, with all necessary force.
In which case, astronomers hunting for this object would be in a rather precarious position. Their data would be collected and placed into computer files. Diligent agents of the Government would then monitor activity on these computers, looking for the Big One, and have plenty of time to act on it before a public announcement was made. After all, the scientists themselves are not about to release their news without verifying it, which would take months. This would provide the authorities with the intelligence needed to act in time to prevent panic.
If one was to go to these extremes of paranoia, then one could suggest that Dr Mike Brown's 'hacker' may have been official in nature...
Of course, this all reads like the screenplay of a bad science fiction movie. Is this really very likely? Well, that depends on the nature of Planet X. If it is a terrestrial planet which moves through the asteroid belt during perihelion, as Zecharia Sitchin argues, then it is potentially dangerous in its own right. But it must be far enough away from perihelion at the moment to give us many, many years of warning between its discovery and its actual perihelion. Such an object takes its time moving around the sun - it is not going to suddenly turn up on our doorstep.
If Planet X is a bigger object, more in the Nemesis genre, then it is less likely to be a direct threat. However, its indirect impact on our planet might be just as bad over a longer period of time. The sheer magnitude of this Dark Star in relation to the other planets of the solar system means that it holds the balance of power among the worlds of the sun.
Even at great distances, it may affect us through orbital diversification, or its movement through the various layers of the solar magnetic field. It may even send us comet swarms by sweeping through parts of the solar system dense with such objects, like the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt. The gap in the EKB might be due to such cosmic vacuuming in the past, with our planet having been the sufferer of previous cataclysmic cometary fallouts. The late, great bombardment 3.9 billion years ago would be an example.
My own opinion is that this Dark Star holds the key to long-term shifts in the climate of the Earth, and that the changes we are currently experiencing here on Earth may be symptomatic of adjustments in that cosmic balance of power. In itself, this may not seem too threatening to our world, at least compared to the threat of cometary bombardment. However, there is another balance of power at stake here.
The world's energy needs have been met by petroleum for decades, and the need for oil steadily increases as more of the world develops industrial muscle. This inexorable rise in the emissions of greenhouse gases means that we fear that we may start to get the taste of what it's like to live on Venus. This is a divisive political and environmental issue.
But the climate of the world is not a stable commodity, and never has been. It oscillates between great extremes, from Snowball Earth to poles inhabited by dinosaurs. These changes weren't a result of the over-use of fossil fuels. We know that for certain, at least.
Other more natural mechanisms dictate the Earth's terrifying swings in climate, and the same seems to be true for other planets in the solar system too. If the key to this mystery is the Dark Star, then its discovery would have a great impact on the debate about climate change itself. We might start to see the bigger picture for what it is.
There is a final consequence of discovery which would interest Governments. If the Dark Star is indeed an integral part of ancient mythology, then its discovery will pose deep questions for all of the world's religions. It will change the way we look at ourselves and our place in the Cosmos.
This may take many years, possibly even generations, but there would be a fundamental shift in our understanding of our own origins, and the source of our beliefs. The myths which we have all been systematically fed throughout our lives by society, and the religious and secular organizations we hold dear, might finally be dispelled. But they would not be given up easily, that's for sure.
This consideration, finally, may be more important to our futures than any considerations about comet clouds or global warming. In our paranoid times, the resultant instability may not be entirely welcomed by our already twitchy Governments, or communities.
Like the scientists who innocently toiled away on the Manhattan Project, our present day astronomers may be playing a game whose consequences entirely transcend their own hopes and fears. Perhaps their scientific caution and secrecy provide them with useful buffers, allowing them to consider the wider consequences of their discoveries.
Myth and Reality
In this book, we have looked at the science that supports the concept of a hidden binary companion. I have put forward a new formulation of the older Nemesis theory, one that brings such a body closer to the solar system. My Dark Star theory is a compromise between the Nemesis concept and the more traditional considerations regarding a Planet X beyond Pluto.
This has allowed us to consider scientific evidence from the Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt, which shows something massive has moved around beyond the Kuiper Cliff. That evidence is mounting. It seems from the work of Alice Quillen, that the truncation of the EKB relates to the activity of a Jupiter-sized, or more massive, planet at some point in the past. I argue that that planet is still orbiting the sun.
If I am right, then the Dark Star is not just another planet found in the depths of the solar system. Its sheer size, mass, and the bizarre nature of its orbit mean that it has a profound effect upon our world. It may turn out to be the key to understanding the massive changes in our planet's climate over the eons. It may help us to explain why the planets of the solar system, including ours, seem to be warming up. This may lead us to revise our entire understanding of global warming, and the imminent fate of our planet's climate.
Furthermore, if the Dark Star becomes visible during its perihelion passage - through some kind of intensification of its activity as it passes through the sun's extensive magnetic field - then its appearance in the sky might provide us with a missing link in understanding many of the world's oldest myths and legends. The discovery of the true nature of the visible phenomenon named “Nibiru” would help to give credence to the other ideas generated by Zecharia Sitchin.
At the beginning of this book, I highlighted my desire to successfully blend myth and scientific reality. As far as interpretation of myth is concerned, I have concentrated upon the work of Zecharia Sitchin in this book, and gone on to explore how his theories might find a scientific mandate as our knowledge of the solar system develops. It is beyond the scope of this particular book to comprehensively explore the vari
ous other mythical sources that might indicate the existence of an unseen planet in our system. There is certainly plenty of fascinating material to consider, particularly in the more eclectic realm of esoteric studies.
Such an investigation is a major undertaking, requiring a diligent study of the complexities of myth and reality. But it is a study which shows considerable promise, and I hope to provide my findings in a future book. For instance, I have a great deal of interest in the association between esoteric symbolism and the existence of a hidden binary companion. Studies in this direction have revealed many potential insights about the secret knowledge of the Dark Star.
Zecharia Sitchin's claims are interwoven with the proposed existence of a substantial tenth planet, moving along a highly elliptical orbit. Sitchin postulated that our species was bio-engineered by flesh-and-blood gods, who traveled to Earth from Nibiru. They allegedly found our ape-like ancestors and modified them to produce, in effect, intelligent slaves capable of doing their bidding. We are the descendants of those experiments, it would seem, abandoned to our fate after the Deluge failed to entirely destroy our species.
It seems to me that the evolutionary development of our species over the last few million years ran hand in hand with the last Ice Epoch, which may or may not have now finished entirely. Arguments about the evolution of the human species are complex, and often antagonistic.13,14,15 One could argue that the evolution towards humanity represented a natural change, when confronted with the environmental onset of an Ice Age.