Page 28 - 20090506 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - May / June 2009

28 Ending The Planet X Saga 28 Ending The Planet X Saga The Planet X Saga: The The PXPs love to scream every time the earthquake to a seismograph). The United States The Planet X Saga: The Scientific Arguments in a Sun undergoes an eruption, whether it's a flare Geological Survey has a webpage describing Scientific Arguments in a exactly this finding. So, if Planet X is real and or coronal mass ejection (or CME for short). Nutshell They say that the peak in the 11 year solar cycle affecting us, it must be suppressing earthquakes, Nutshell Continued from Page 26 was two to three years ago, and therefore the not causing them. Continued from Page 26 Sun should be quiet now. Any eruption is There were two big earthquakes in Also, a giant planet has giant gravity. therefore evidence of effects from Planet X. January 2003, both over 7 on the Richter scale. Neptune was discovered because of its This is wrong. The Sun did indeed peak The PXPs went nuts about them. But look at the gravitational effects on Saturn and Uranus. in the year 2000, but these peaks are not sudden; plot! Two magnitude 7 earthquakes in one Planet X, if it were anywhere near the inner they grow and fade slowly, over years. In fact, month means you'd expect 24 in a year, right? solar system (and in truth, even a long way out), each peak actually has two sub-peaks; solar Well, you can see that 24 magnitude 7 would pull on those planets. This pull would activity rises, then declines, then rises again a earthquakes per year is just about right given the affect their orbits, and we'd see that. We don't. year or so later, as can be seen in the plot shown earthquake history. So once again, by bringing Some of the Planet X proponents talk about how (click on it to bring up a bigger version of the this data to everyone's attention, the Planet X the outer planets' orbits are indeed affected, but image). We are just now finishing up the second people are shooting themselves in the foot. they are relying on very old data. In fact, the peak, and as you can see we should expect Conclusion: there no more planets are exactly where they should be given plenty of activity on the Sun. I talked to a couple earthquakes than usual, and therefore the nine planets we know about. of solar astronomers, and they both told me that earthquakes cannot be used to support the A lot of PXPs talk about a couple of the flares and CMEs in the second peak tend to existence of Planet X. scientific papers published which talk about be more violent than in the first, so we actually perturbations in comet orbits indicating a expect more energetic activity in the second There has been a lot of weird weather possible tenth planet. I have read both papers, peak, that is, now. lately. and found them to be interesting, but unlikely. The PXPs neglect to mention the history They are more speculation than hard science, in of the Sun, and just want you to think about Another big claim is that there has been my opinion. But even if they are correct, they what's happening right now. By doing that, it a lot of unusual weather going on; tornadoes, would indicate a planet that is way, way farther makes it seem like the Sun is undergoing all droughts, storms, etc. Like earthquakes and out than Hazlewood and Lieder claim for Planet sorts of undulations, when in fact it's doing solar flares, every time it rains it seems like it X, and in fact would indicate there is no massive exactly what is expected of it. The Sun is in no must be due to Planet X. planet closer to the inner solar system. As usual, way acting abnormally, despite their claims. First off, surprise! The weather isn't all by pointing out scientific evidence they think Conclusion: the Sun is acting that weird. We are coming off of an El Nino, supports their position, the PXPs are actually normally, and its behavior does not support the which is a weather pattern that disrupts climates highlighting evidence against them. existence of Planet X. across the world. Also, we are now into Another favorite claim of Mark springtime, when things like tornadoes are Hazlewood is that NASA found the tenth planet There are not more earthquakes than common. Seeing tornadoes in Texas and back in 1983, and even announced it. This is normal. Oklahoma is not only not unusual, but is patently untrue. What really happened was that expected! a satellite used to make astronomical This claim is similar to the one about the There have been some records broken observations in infrared light found several Sun. The PXPs say that earthquakes are on the this year, but there are weather records broken objects that were previously unidentified. rise, which indicates effects by Planet X. Every every year. This is exactly the same sort of bad During a press conference, the astronomers time there is a large earthquake, the PXPs say logic used in the earthquake argument, and is made a list of potential sources, including (but this is evidence for Planet X. just as wrong. Even a cursory web search yields not limited to) a tenth planet. Of course, the This is wrong. The table displayed here lots of pages about the odd weather we get as El headline in the Washington Post zeroed in on (click on it to bring up a bigger version of the Nino departs. the planet possibility, but science is generally image) shows earthquake activity over the past And even if it were true, how could the not done by headlines. Sure enough, follow-up 13 years. The quakes are divided by strength weather possibly be to tied to an incoming observations made later showed clearly that (vertically) and year (horizontally). The data are planet? If you assume electromagnetic forces, most of the objects were distant galaxies, and complete for 2002, meaning every earthquake we'd see huge changes in our aurora before we'd another was a gas cloud in our own Galaxy. No measured is there. see changes in the weather, and we see no such planet. If Planet X is nearly here, then you'd changes. If it were gravitational, then there Of course, Hazlewood and his ilk claim expect to see an increase of major earthquake would be countless other, far larger effects. that NASA got wise and quickly covered up the activity over time, with 2002 having the most. Long before the weather were disrupted, we'd discovery of the tenth planet, but let's face it, Surprise! It doesn't. In fact, 2002 is usually see changes in the Moon's orbit that were so big that claim is pretty dumb. This was a NASA average or even below average in the number of they would be unmistakable. They would press conference in the first place, and if they major earthquakes for a given magnitude that certainly throw off the timings of eclipses, and were this ultra-competent super-secret occurred. we'll see on May 15th that there will be a lunar organization that Hazlewood makes them out to You may notice that the actual total eclipse right on schedule. be, or even if they were middling-competent number of earthquakes does appear to increase Conclusion: the weather isn't any bureaucrats, the press conference wouldn't have with time, but that is not because there are more weirder than it usually is at the end of an El been held in the first place! And at the very earthquakes. It's because we're getting better at Nino, so the claims of weird weather are least, the astronomers involved would have detecting them! As instruments become more wrong. been briefed not to reveal anything secret. The sensitive, more earthquakes are detected. Note PXPs want it both ways: they want NASA to be that the increase is mostly in the number of Continued on Page 29 so good they can change journal articles, web small quakes, which are usually harder to pages, astronomical catalogs and more with detect. Better instrumentation naturally detects iron-clad authority, but so bumbling they smaller quakes more easily, increasing the total couldn't keep two astronomers and a DC number found without changing the number of reporter shut up. Puhleeze! big quakes found, because those are easy to Conclusion: Planet X has no physical detect and we catch them all with less sensitive effects, has never been seen, and therefore equipment. Supporting this is the last line of the doesn't exist. graph, which shows only a few very weak earthquakes in the 0-1 range. There are probably The Sun is not acting in any way more of those than any other earthquake, but are abnormally. far harder to detect unambiguously (a car driving by might look just like a magnitude 0.1