Page 19 - 200911 - The 'X' Chronicles newspaper - November 2009

november2009_june_july_2009.qxd 23/11/2009 4:37 PM Page 19 The Planet-X Saga 19 19 The Planet-X Saga The Planet X Saga: The kilometers away. Even at that distance, it would Conclusion: Planet X has no physical Scientific Arguments in a be one of the brightest objects in the sky. Even effects, has never been seen, and therefore if it were too faint to be seen with the naked eye, doesn't exist. Nutshell it would still be seen easily even if it were The Sun is not acting in any way abnormally. billions of kilometers away. Remember, tiny by Pluto is 5 billion kilometers out, and can be Phil Plait easily detected using modern equipment, and The PXPs love to scream every time the Pluto is way smaller than Planet X is supposed Sun undergoes an eruption, whether it's a flare Ancient texts do not discuss the existence of a to be. There is simply no way a big planet so or coronal mass ejection (or CME for short). tenth planet. close to Earth could have escaped astronomers' They say that the peak in the 11 year solar cycle detection-- even amateur astronomers, who was two to three years ago, and therefore the Zechariah Sitchin bases his entire theory even Lieder and Hazlewood must realize have Sun should be quiet now. Any eruption is of the existence of a tenth planet on ancient no reason to lie-- all these decades. therefore evidence of effects from Planet X. texts, including Sumerian and biblical writings. Also, a giant planet has giant gravity. This is wrong. The Sun did indeed peak However, he is known to misinterpret Neptune was discovered because of its in the year 2000, but these peaks are not sudden; Sumerian, sometimes grossly. His key finding is gravitational effects on Saturn and Uranus. they grow and fade slowly, over years. In fact, based on a seal that shows a diagram that looks Planet X, if it were anywhere near the inner each peak actually has two sub-peaks; solar like the solar system, with the Sun at the center. solar system (and in truth, even a long way out), activity rises, then declines, then rises again a It appears to have eleven planets around it. would pull on those planets. This pull would year or so later, as can be seen in the plot shown Since Sumerians counted the Sun and Moon as affect their orbits, and we'd see that. We don't. (click on it to bring up a bigger version of the planets, Sitchin says the extra one must be some Some of the Planet X proponents talk about how image). We are just now finishing up the second unknown planet. He also says it has aliens on it the outer planets' orbits are indeed affected, but peak, and as you can see we should expect who communicated with the ancient Sumerians. they are relying on very old data. In fact, the plenty of activity on the Sun. I talked to a couple But there are two major problems with this. planets are exactly where they should be given of solar astronomers, and they both told me that Well, three, if you count having alien visitations the nine planets we know about. the flares and CMEs in the second peak tend to as a problem (and I certainly do). But ignoring A lot of PXPs talk about a couple of be more violent than in the first, so we actually that, there are still two biggies. Sitchin claims scientific papers published which talk about expect more energetic activity in the second that the picture shows Uranus, Neptune and perturbations in comet orbits indicating a peak, that is, now. Pluto. But the Sumerians didn't have telescopes, possible tenth planet. I have read both papers, The PXPs neglect to mention the history and therefore could only have known of them if and found them to be interesting, but unlikely. of the Sun, and just want you to think about aliens told them about their existence. But if They are more speculation than hard science, in what's happening right now. By doing that, it aliens told them about those planets, why not my opinion. But even if they are correct, they makes it seem like the Sun is undergoing all about the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, or would indicate a planet that is way, way farther sorts of undulations, when in fact it's doing Saturn's rings? The seal doesn't show any of out than Hazlewood and Lieder claim for Planet exactly what is expected of it. The Sun is in no these features. And the Sumerians thought the X, and in fact would indicate there is no massive way acting abnormally, despite their claims. Moon and Sun were planets, when they aren't. planet closer to the inner solar system. As usual, Conclusion: the Sun is acting normally, Certainly aliens would know that the Sun and by pointing out scientific evidence they think and its behavior does not support the existence Moon are not planets! Sitchin is picking and supports their position, the PXPs are actually of Planet X. choosing things in the picture to support his highlighting evidence against them. arguments, and ignoring things that don't Another favorite claim of Mark There are not more earthquakes than support it. That isn't science, it's fantasy. It's also Hazlewood is that NASA found the tenth planet normal. wrong. back in 1983, and even announced it. This is Worse, his interpretation of the picture is patently untrue. What really happened was that This claim is similar to the one about the wrong. The Sumerians have an unambiguous a satellite used to make astronomical Sun. The PXPs say that earthquakes are on the symbol for the Sun: a circle with four triangles observations in infrared light found several rise, which indicates effects by Planet X. Every around it like rays, and squiggly lines between objects that were previously unidentified. time there is a large earthquake, the PXPs say the triangles. That is emphatically not the During a press conference, the astronomers this is evidence for Planet X. symbol in the seal. The symbol used is that of a made a list of potential sources, including (but This is wrong. bright star, but not the Sun. So even Sitchin's not limited to) a tenth planet. Of course, the If Planet X is nearly here, then you'd basic premise is wrong. Michael Heiser, a headline in the Washington Post zeroed in on expect to see an increase of major earthquake Sumerian scholar, outlines all this on his the planet possibility, but science is generally activity over time, with 2002 having the most. website. not done by headlines. Sure enough, follow-up Surprise! It doesn't. In fact, 2002 is usually Conclusion: Sitchin's ideas are wrong, observations made later showed clearly that average or even below average in the number of and so there is no reason to even introduce the most of the objects were distant galaxies, and major earthquakes for a given magnitude that idea of a tenth planet that passes by the Earth. another was a gas cloud in our own Galaxy. No occurred. planet. You may notice that the actual total There is no astronomical indication of the Of course, Hazlewood and his ilk claim number of earthquakes does appear to increase existence of another large planet in the inner that NASA got wise and quickly covered up the with time, but that is not because there are more solar system. discovery of the tenth planet, but let's face it, earthquakes. It's because we're getting better at that claim is pretty dumb. This was a NASA detecting them! As instruments become more In my opinion, this is the biggest press conference in the first place, and if they sensitive, more earthquakes are detected. Note problem with the Planet X myth. Simply put: were this ultra-competent super-secret that the increase is mostly in the number of where is it? We don't see it optically, and we organization that Hazlewood makes them out to small quakes, which are usually harder to don't see any effects gravitationally. be, or even if they were middling-competent detect. Better instrumentation naturally detects Look at Jupiter. Literally! It's about ten bureaucrats, the press conference wouldn't have smaller quakes more easily, increasing the total times the diameter of the Earth, and it's on been held in the first place! And at the very number found without changing the number of average about 750 million kilometers (450 least, the astronomers involved would have big quakes found, because those are easy to million miles) away. It is easily visible to the been briefed not to reveal anything secret. The detect and we catch them all with less sensitive naked eye, and in fact is usually the fourth or PXPs want it both ways: they want NASA to be equipment. Supporting this is the last line of the fifth brightest object in the sky (the Sun, Moon, so good they can change journal articles, web graph, which shows only a few very weak and Venus are brighter, and Mars can sometimes pages, astronomical catalogs and more with earthquakes in the 0-1 range. be brighter than Jupiter). iron-clad authority, but so bumbling they Yet, for Planet X to be here in less then couldn't keep two astronomers and a DC a decade, it can't be farther than a billion or so reporter shut up. Puhleeze! (Continued on Page 21)