The Dark Star: The Planet X Evidence (32 page)

To explain the orderly alignments of the planets within the solar
system, astrophysicists have traditionally argued that the planets formed in
their present orbital configurations, obeying "Bode's Law" right from
the word 'go'. This is partly due to the fact that we don't have planets flying
around our ears, as one might have thought if things had begun more chaotic in
the past. In other words, the accepted physical models are based upon Newton's
Laws, that the planets will keep going in a given orbit indefinitely, unless
directly perturbed by another planetary body.

But the resonance effect implies a self-regulating principle at
work, one that would alter the planetary orbits over time as they harmonize
with one another. As such, if resonance turned out to be a common feature of
planetary systems, we could no longer surmise a regularity for the early solar
system, based upon its current appearance.

Would this be so surprising? After all, other findings from
extrasolar planets have already sufficiently rocked the boat for us to
question many previously held assumptions.
²⁸

One reason why inner solar system bodies are more haphazardly
orientated with respect to each other is because the system becomes
increasingly complex. The further out from the sun you go, the more the
complexity eases, making it likely, given everything else we know, that the
scattered disc objects we are examining are resonant with something massive and
unseen.

In which case, we can attempt to find a correlation between what
we know about Sedna and 2000 CR105, and what we think we know about the Dark
Star. Sedna's orbit is in the region of 10,800 years and 2000 CR105's orbit is
about 3,300 years. So, Sedna's orbit is approximately three times that of 2000
CR105. Given that these are approximate values, it is possible that within
experimental error the two share resonance. However, better data is needed to
say for sure.

Zecharia Sitchin wrote about Nibiru's orbit being 3,600 years, and
this has always been taken somewhat at face value. However, there is no piece
of Sumerian writing that says 'Nibiru is a planet orbiting the sun whose
orbital period is 3,600 years'. His “12th Planet Theory” looked at ancient
Mesopotamian myth, and proposed that the cosmogony was based upon real
'creation' events in the solar system. By doing so, one could imply the
existence of an undiscovered planet that offered the key to our understanding
of the solar system.
²⁹

Sitchin then had to address the issue of its orbit and proposed
that it correlated with the Sumerian "Sar" of 3,600, an important
component of their unusual and complex sexigesimal numbering system. Well,
there is not a great deal of difference between this figure of 3,600 years - which
Sitchin has always taken great pains to describe as approximately representing
Nibiru's orbital period - and 2000 CR105's 3,300 years. Is there any
connection?

We can't know for sure, until more of these objects are discovered
and their orbits carefully described. But it would be very interesting indeed
if future discoveries of these strange extended scattered disc objects in our
solar system showed a statistical correlation of their orbital periods.

One wonders whether their orbits might all be related, with the
Babylonian Sar being the basic numerical factor underpinning their
relationship! This would make sense of the importance of this number to the
ancient Sumerians and Babylonians. From this, we would be able to infer the
existence of a distant massive perturbing planet in our solar system,
shepherding its widely dispersed flock of planetesimals. So even if we have yet
to 'see' the Dark Star, we soon might be able to imply its existence from these
companions.

¹
Z. Sitchin "The Case of the French Astronomer"
http://www.sitchin.com

²
H.T. Wilkins "Mysteries of South America" p32 Rider
& Co, London 1945

³
Tim Radford “Evidence of 3,000 BC Calamity” 16th December 2004,
The Guardian

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

⁵
“Klemperer Rosettes”, with thanks to Theo Kermanidis
http://burtleburtle.net/bob/physics/kempler.html

⁶
J. Bagby “Evidence for a Tenth Planet or Massive Solar Companion
beyond Uranus” 1982.

⁷
D. Whitehouse “Spacecraft pulled by mystery force” BBC, 10th
September 1998

⁸
J. Anderson quoted in “Scientist thinks Tenth Planet may exist”,
with thanks to Rick Savard
http://www.totse.com/en/technology/space_astronomy_nasa/10planet.html

⁹
UFO Magazine “Pioneer Discoveries in Outer Space” Jan/Feb. 1999,
Quest Publications International Ltd

¹⁰
B. Akins “Pioneer Home: Mission Status”
http://
spaceprojects.arc.nasa.gov/Space_Projects/pioneer/PNStat.html

¹¹
C. Sagan “Pale Blue Dot” p143-144, 152 Headline Book Publishing
1995

¹²
UFO Magazine “Pioneer 10: Still Doing the Business” Jan./ Feb.
2000, Quest Publications International Ltd

¹³
http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/space/05/21/gravity.mystery/index.html
Thanks to Rick Savard

¹⁴
D.S. Allan & J.B. Delair “When the Earth Nearly Died” p16,
Gateway Books, Bath 1995

15. J. Bone “Ice Age Forest Gives a Global Warning” The Times
25/2/00, with thanks to David Pearson

¹⁶
S. Ida, J. Larwood & A. Burkett “Evidence for Early Stellar
Encounters in the Orbital Distribution of Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Objects” The
Astrophysical Journal, 528: pp351-6, (2000)

¹⁷
A. Morbidelli & H. Levison "Scenarios for the origin of
the Orbits of the Trans-Neptunian Objects 2000 CR105 and 2003 VB12
(Sedna)", submitted to Astronomical Journal 2/4/2004
http://www.boulder.swri.edu/~hal/CR105.html

¹⁸
J. Foust "Bizarre new planets puzzle astronomers"
Spaceflight Now, 10th January 2000

¹⁹
Associated Press "We Prefer Not to Call It a Failed Star. We
Call It a Specially Challenged Brown Dwarf" 9th January 2001
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/

²⁰
"Planetary Correctness" Associated Press, 9th January
2001
http://www.aci.net/kalliste/

²¹
Correspondence from Theo Kermanidis, 2nd Feb. 2002, citing data
at
http://www-hpcc.astro.washington.edu/stawarz/orbres.html
http://ssd.jpl.nasa.gov/a_histo.html

²²
Correspondence from Matthew Holman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics, 10th Feb. 2002

²³
B. Gladman "Evidence for an Extended Scattered Disk?"
http://www.obs-nice.fr/gladman/cr105.html

²⁴
J. Kelly Beatty “Bigorbit Object Confounds Dynamicists” 5th
April 2001, with thanks to Frank Cordell and Theo Kermanidis
http://www.skypub.com/news/news.shtml#bigorbit

²⁵
A. Stern "Chiron: Interloper from the Kuiper Disk?"
pp26-33 Astronomy August 1994

²⁶
Correspondence from Matthew Holman, Harvard-Smithsonian Center
for Astrophysics, 12th Feb 2002

²⁷
M. Baigent "Ancient Traces" p203 Penguin 1998

²⁸
G. Marcy & P. Butler "Hunting Planets Beyond"
pp43-7 Astronomy March 2000

²⁹
Zecharia Sitchin “The Twelfth Planet” Avon 1976

17. The Dark Star and Mass
Extinctions

Not so long ago, I was sent a short story by H.G. Wells entitled,
“The Star”. The story highlights a tradition of catastrophism associated with a
returning star moving through the solar system.
¹
Before receiving
this transcript, I was not even aware that H.G. Wells had written about the
return of Planet X. The story was written in 1899, and presumably reflects the
centennial doom-mongering that anticipates the start of a new century. It
describes the unexpected appearance of the Star, a planet from deep space,
which collides with Neptune, and then swings towards the Earth when passing
Jupiter:

“But near its destined path, as yet only slightly perturbed, spun
the mighty planet Jupiter and his moons sweeping splendid round the sun. Every
moment now the attraction between the fiery star and the greatest of the
planets grew stronger. And the result of that attraction? Inevitably, Jupiter
would be deflected from its orbit into an elliptical path, and the burning
star, swung by his attraction wide of its sun-ward rush, would describe a
curved path and perhaps collide with, and certainly pass very close to, our
Earth. Earthquakes, volcanic outbreaks, cyclones, sea waves, floods, and a
steady rise in temperature to I know not what limit - so prophesied the master
mathematician”.
¹

The story takes on an ever threatening tone, one that becomes
Biblical in mythological proportions. Indeed, the advent of the Star's approach
brings about a great Flood, perhaps allowing H.G. Wells the literary license to
provide his own explanation for the Universal Flood Myth. There is also an
allusion to the Earth standing still, reflecting the consideration at that time
that there may be truth in the myths of such events across the world: “And then
came a wonder. It seemed to those who in Europe watched for the rising of the
star that the world must have ceased its rotation. In a thousand open spaces of
down and upland the people who had fled the thither from the floods and the
falling houses and sliding slopes of hill watched for that rising in vain. Hour
followed hour through a terrible suspense, and the star rose not. Once again
men set their eyes upon the old constellations they had counted lost to them
forever. In England it was hot and clear overhead, though the ground quivered
perpetually, but in the tropics, Sirius and Capella and Aldebaran showed
through a veil of steam. And when at last the great star rose near ten hours
late, the sun rose close upon it, and in the centre of its white heat was a
disc of black”.
¹

It would be tempting to read a lot into this story by H.G. Wells.
He was a first class science fiction writer, and there was a lot of speculation
at the turn of the century that a planet might lurk beyond Neptune. As we have
seen in an earlier chapter, the hunt of this planet led to the discovery of
Pluto some three decades after “The Star” was written. The story shows how
Catastrophism has long been associated with the return of a hidden body of
colossal proportions. Can it have any basis in reality?

The possible existence of a hidden planet orbiting the sun is
quite often associated with catastrophe on planet Earth. Indeed, the popular
consensus that Nibiru ― a mythological planet as yet unaccounted for by
scientists ― is about to appear in our skies, may be intrinsically
wrapped up with our common dread of cataclysm. In the same way that many
incorrectly anticipated an apocalyptic event prior to the turn of the
Millennium, advocates of the Imminent Return hypothesis believe that we are
about to face our gravest test since the Flood (which may, or may not, have
actually taken place).

Although I believe in the existence of a hidden Planet X, in the
guise of a sub-brown dwarf or 'Dark Star', I have been one of the strongest
critics of the Imminent Return hypothesis. Yet, there is some merit to the idea
that Planet X may be associated with catastrophe, and it is almost certainly
connected to rapid climate changes at various points in the Earth's past. In
this chapter I will outline a new hypothesis, which seeks to correlate the
orbital behavior of this hidden Dark Star with catastrophic events as recorded
by geologists and paleontologists.

To explore this idea, we must immediately get to grips with a
problem of timescale. I am often confronted with e-mails that state that
Planet X could not have appeared in our skies on such-and-such a date, because
there was no massive catastrophe associated with its arrival. The implication
is that every time the Dark Star system was to brush past the planetary zone,
the Earth (and presumably some other planets too) would be subject to
fundamental change. So, if the Dark Star exhibits an orbit analogous with
Sitchin's 3,600 years
²
, the implication is that Nibiru causes
devastation on a highly regular basis...extremely often, when viewed on a geological
scale.

However, I don't accept this argument: it does not fit with the
evidence at our disposal. The planetary surfaces in the solar system which are
very ancient, like the Moon and some parts of the Martian landscape, show a
high incidence of bombardment in the very distant past, during the early period
of the solar system's history. Bombardments on this scale are not noted after
that time.

One can reasonably conclude that although occasional comets and
asteroids do strike the Earth, and the other inner planets too, there is not a
regular catastrophic bombardment. Otherwise, more youthful planetary landscapes
would also show the kind of cratering patterns obvious to us all when we look
up at the rather ancient surface of our Moon. Also, there would be a rather
higher incidence of asteroids with Earth-crossing orbits, known as NEOs.

The inner solar system would be a more highly populated
environment because far more objects would have been captured into tight orbits
around the sun over time. As such, I don't think that associating Planet X
Catastrophism with frequent cometary bombardments throughout history is likely
to be a particularly fruitful study.

Of course, others differ in their opinions on this subject, but I
prefer to find other mechanisms whereby the Dark Star might affect the Earth.
The results are less explosive, it is true, but we can readily find ways to
account for sudden and dramatic climate changes, for instance. Comet and
asteroid bombardments certainly occur, it is true, but I am not certain that a
direct correlation between them and Planet X is going to be found, beyond just
a greater statistical likelihood of a collision during the Dark Star's
perihelion passage.

In other words, when the Dark Star moves past the EKB, a greater
number of comets may move through the planetary solar system. That doesn't
necessarily mean that we're on collision course with any of them, any more than
we would be with 'normal' comets. There would just be more comets for a while,
slightly increasing the risk of our crossing paths with one. So whereas
observers might report a greater number of comets in the heavens at that time,
our world may not face any greater risk of catastrophe.

Catastrophism has come a long way. There was a time when
scientists considered the world to be a very stable place, with an evolutionary
progression that was slow and steady. This reflected an old-fashioned view of
the world embedded in religious and cultural tradition: the World has always
been this way.

But we now think that many cataclysms have occurred down the Ages,
and that evolution is more of a 'stop-go' affair than one of slow, incremental
change. We know that continents drift across the face of the Earth, bringing
about the creation of mountain ranges as landmasses lock horns. Further, we
know that significant extinction events have blighted our planet, even worse
than the heinous acts of mass extinction we are currently responsible for.

Our awareness has been raised about how fragile our world can be,
and also how changeable when seen through the eyes of a geologist. We have
moved from a theological world-view, that led us to believe that the world was
created to meet our needs, to a more terrifying reality. We live in a world
whose stability is not guaranteed. Our environment has changed many times in
the past, sometimes in orders of magnitude worse than the global warming we
have created through the emergence of our industrial power.

We now recognize that our world can also be devastatingly affected
by external influence. The chances of this are very remote, occurring on a
timescale that boggles the mind. This reflects the sheer size of the solar
system, and the almost negligible proportion of it that is actually occupied by
planets, asteroids and comets.

The planetary solar system consists mostly of open, empty space.
Even if two objects orbiting the sun have paths that cross each other, the
possibility of a collision is extremely remote. So, catastrophic events only
become apparent over geological timescales, when the small statistical danger
posed by an Earth-crossing asteroid or comet is actually encountered after
countless misses.

So it follows that the regular reappearance of a planetary body
that might somehow pose a threat to us would not, indeed could not, always be
associated with a cataclysm, even if it passed directly through the solar
system..

Only a passing object the size of an actual star could be
guaranteed to cause environmental devastation on Earth, and although it is
probable that stars have themselves brushed past the solar system in the past
³
,
the likelihood of a future similar event is minute. As the size of the stellar
object decreases, its relative danger threshold quickly falls away.

Large brown dwarfs passing through the planetary zone might pose a
problem. Small brown dwarfs probably wouldn't. The danger threshold appears to
be 10-20 Jupiter masses.
⁴

Regular size planets, or even gas giants, passing through the
solar system would no more cause a problem to us than the occasional alignment
of the known planets. That's how enormous, and mostly empty, the solar system
is.

This is why I maintain that for a Planet X to have brought about
environmental change on Earth during any of its perihelion passages, it must be
nothing less than a brown dwarf, or else it would simply not be massive enough
to be remotely effective on a catastrophic scale. According to the scientist
Jack Hills, it is quite possible for a small brown dwarf to move through the
solar system with impunity. His calculations have shown that it need not affect
the orbits of the other planets
⁴
, although this might change with
multiple transits as the statistical likelihood of interference with any given
planet increases.

I am quite certain that the Dark Star could move through the solar
system itself, and leave the place roughly as it found it. However, the
evidence from the outer solar system implies that it does not approach closer
than about 70AU.