Nibiru Collision Scenario

Submission 16,176

Part of a series on December 21st, 2012. [View Related Entries]

About

Nibiru Collision, also referred to as the Nibiru Cataclysm, is a supposed doomsday scenario which posits that the Earth may encounter an apocalyptic collision with a large planetary object known as "Nibiru" or "Planet X" sometime in the early 21st century. Despite the utter lack of support by any real scientific evidence, the theory garnered much online attention during the months leading up to December 21st, 2012, while some still believe such cataclysmic event may occur in the near future. The theory has been debunked by NASA and other scientific authorities.

Origin

In 1995, Nancy Lieder, a Wisconsin resident who claims that she was contacted by a group of grey aliens known as "Zetas" and had her brain implanted with a communications device during her childhood, laid out the foundation of the planetary collision theory on her newly launched website ZetaTalk.com. According to Lieder's original account, the aliens had warned her of an impending global catastrophe that would supposedly take place on May 23rd, 2003, during which the surface of our planet would be devastated by a violent disruption of its magnetic core as a result of its extremely close encounter with another planet four times the size of the Earth.

Spread

In 1996, Lieder made a connection between Planet X and the planet "Nibiru" as mentioned in the books by Zecharia Sitchin. Although Sitchin denied connection between him and Lieder, and that his book The End of Days claimed Nibiru would return sometime around 2900, many believers of Lieder and Sitchin's stories associated the two stories with each other.

Comet Hale-Bopp's Perihelion

In 1997, Lieder's Nibiru Collision theory first came to public attention through various Internet newsgroups devoted to discussions of extraterrestrials, which coincided with the news media's growing interest in Comet Hale–Bopp's perihelion that occurred in April that year. On her website, Lieder stated that the public's heightened interest Comet Hale-Bopp had been manufactured to distract the masses from the imminent approach of an unknown "Planet X," while arguing that the comet is actually a distant star that poses little threat to the Earth.

On March 28th, 1997, shortly before the observance of the comet's perihelion, the New York Times mentioned Lieder's theory in an article titled "Comets Breed Fear, Fascination and Web Sites."

According to the Zetas, Nancy writes, the comet is part of a conspiracy to deflect the world's attention from the ''true messenger of death,'' the 12th Planet, which is supposedly set to sweep by Earth and knock it for a loop.

After Hale-Bopp's perihelion revealed it as one of the brightest and longest-observed comets of the last century, Lieder redacted the first two sentences of her initial statement from her website.

May 23rd, 2003

As Lieder continued to expound her theory through ZetaTalk, Mark Hazlewood, a conspiracy theorist and former member of Leider's online forum community, wrote about the topic in his 2001 book Blindsided: Planet X Passes in 2003. In mid-May 2003, about a week before the Earth's supposed encounter with Planet X, Lieder appeared on the Los Angeles-based radio station KROQ-FM to urge listeners to euthanize their pets in anticipation of the catastrophic event. Meanwhile in Japan, members of the cult group Pana Wave Laboratory also spread similar warnings about an impending doomsday and reportedly "blocked off roads and rivers with white clothes" in anticipation of electromagnetic attacks that would result from the approach of a mysterious "tenth planet" in May 2003. Following the passing of the date without any incident, Lieder casually dismissed her previous statement as a white lie "to fool the establishment."

August 23rd, 2018

On August 13th, 2018, the British tabloid Express^[13] reported that conspiracy theorist David Meade believes that Nibiru will appear before the Earth. The planet will then pass the Earth in October 2018, signaling the start of the rapture and the end of the world. He states:

During this time frame, on April 23, 2018 the moon appears under the feet of the Constellation Virgo.

“The Sun appears to precisely clothe Virgo… Jupiter is birthed on April 08, 2018.

“The 12 stars at that date include the nine stars of Leo, and the three planetary alignments of Mercury, Venus and Mars – which combine to make a count of 12 stars on the head of Virgo.

“Thus the constellations Virgo, Leo and Serpens-Ophiuchus represent a unique once-in-a-century sign exactly as depicted in the 12th chapter of Revelation. This is our time marker."

Various media oulets covered the story, debunking the notion that the world will end in 2018, stating that conspiracy theorists frequently change the date when the world does not end when predicted, including The Washington Post,^[15] Mashable, ^[16] Forbes^[17] and more.

NASA's Debunking of Nibiru Theory

NASA's website refutes the believe that Nibiru will crash into the Earth. According to the NASA website,^[14] Nibiru has not been discovered in the out solar system. Some conspiracy theorists assert that a small commet called "Elenin" is Nibiru. This comet was said to have shifted the Earth's axis, causing earthquakes in Chile and Japan, despite the fact that comets cannot cause earthquakes, plate tectonics do.

David Morrison, a planetary astronomer at NASA Ames Research Center and senior scientist at the NASA Astrobiology Institute and NASA Lunar Science Institute, wrote:

"The fact is that these folks are constantly changing their story. For some, Nibiru is no longer the Sumerian god or planet that is supposed to be returning to Earth in late 2012. It has become a catchword for almost any cosmic catastrophe."

Various Examples

Many supplementary theories and hoaxes have since surfaced around the topic, including claims of a government conspiracy theory involving NASA's cover-up of Nibiru's existence. One of the more well known claims is that the star V838 Mon and its increasing light echo is actually Nibiru getting closer to the Earth.

While Lieder has repeatedly refused to disclose her predictions regarding the expected date of its occurrence, the online interest in the theory saw a significant resurgence during the latter half of 2012, as the Mayan prediction of the doomsday on December 21st, 2012 heavily circulated in the social media.