Conspiracy theorists are claiming that the Earth will be destroyed in a cataclysmic collision with the mysterious planet Nibiru during the August solar eclipse. The solar eclipse will be the first total solar eclipse seen in North America in almost a century. According to reports in News.com.au, The Telegraph, and Mail Online, the eclipse apparently signals the start of the cataclysm, which conspiracy theories expect will destroy the Earth in September.
The theory was first proposed by Nancy Lieder in 1995, a person who claims to have been contacted by an alien race known as Zetas. The Zetas are supposed to be tall, thin beings with bulging heads and large black, pupil-less eyes. The Zetas apparently implanted Zetan genetic material into Nancy's brain to enable communication and use Nancy as a "communicator." Her role was to warn the residents of Earth of an impending collision with Nibiru, which was first supposed to take place in 2003.
When the Earth did not collide with Nibiru in 2003, the date was shifted to 2012, which conveniently coincided with the ending of the Ancient Mayan Calendar. Nibiru ditched its date with the Earth in 2012 as well, and now the conspiracy theorists are suggesting that the planet is again headed towards Earth and that the August total solar eclipse signals the start of the cataclysm. A number of photographs of the incoming Nibiru, clicked by amateur photographers, appear to be little more than flares on the camera because of the Sun.
In 2011, David Morrison, a scientist at NASA released a video rejecting the claims of the impending catastrophe. Much of the reasons provided are still valid today. The video was put up as a response to questions from students who were scared of the end of the world. Any planet about to collide with the Earth would be visible with the naked eye, and astronomers would have spotted it coming from a long way away.
A real planet in the inner solar system would be detected by the gravitational perturbations on the inner planets even if, for some reason, it would be invisible to the naked eye. The orbit of the Earth would be changed even before Nibiru actually collided with the Earth. The stable orbits of the inner solar system planets proves that no planetary mass rogue object has entered the inner solar system for at least a million years.
According to the works of Zecharia Sitchin, a pseudoscientists and a pseudohistorian who has written books on the the role of aliens in ancient human history, Nibiru was an alien base. The species in question are the Anunnaki, who may have been interpreted as angels, and who apparently seeded the Caucasian race on Earth. According to Sitchin, Nibiru is a visitor from another solar system that collided with a planet known as Tiamat, creating the Earth and the asteroid belt in the process. Life on Earth began because of this event, as life had originally originated on Nibiru, which was an Earth-like planet.
Nibiru is often confused with Planet X, a placeholder name for an undiscovered trans-Neptunian planet in the solar system. There are a number of objects that have been identified as a potential planet on the fringes of the solar system. Scientists believe one such object predicted to exist based on computer models will be spotted by telescopes in the next five years. In one of the surveys conducted of the outer solar system, two trans-Neptunian "worlds" were identified. NASA's Sentry program keeps a watch on near Earth objects that could potentially collide with the Earth and does not have a listing for a world-ending event this September.
So what will happen after September? Nothing. The Earth will continue in its orbit around the Sun, there will not be a Nibiru and the date of the cataclysm will be postponed for a third time.
The myth of Nibiru, however, will continue to live on, considering that two, almost three missed dates were not enough to permanently silence the theorists.