THE CASE OF THE TENTH PLANET

The announcement, on July 30th 2005, that a new celestial body has been discovered made media news around the world; and because the reports were headlined “Astronomers Claim Discovery of 10th Planet,” my phone started to constantly ring… Some callers shouted “Congratulations!”; others, more cautiously, asked: “Is it Nibiru?” – “Nibiru” being the planet of which I had been writing and talking ever since my book The 12th Planet was published decades ago.

The announcement by a Caltech astronomer, Michael Brown, said that he and two colleagues, scanning the heavens in 2003, found a celestial body (designated 2003-UB-313) that they now realize might be larger than Pluto (the ninth planet) and thus qualify as the 10th planet in our solar system. Lacking many vital data except that it orbits the Sun at a very steep angle to the ecliptic (the orbital plane of Earth and other planets) and is now about 9 billion miles from us, the discovery’s announcement was explained as prompted by concern that a computer hacker, a “rogue astronomer”, or a team of Spanish astronomers claiming to have found such a body (that they designated 2003-EL-61) would pre-empt the Brown team.

A Planet, A “Planetoid” – Or What?

While the Brown team employed the term “tenth planet” merely due to its presumed size (“larger than Pluto”), other astronomers have already pointed out that it could be just one of several (perhaps even numerous) planetoids that are assumed to exist in what is called the Kuiper Belt; the Brown team found one such object not long ago and named it Sedna (and is rumored to be readying an announcement regarding yet another one, 2005-FY-9).

All that has kindled a debate among astronomers regarding what is to be deemed a full-fledged planet, or a lesser “planetoid,” or just a “Kuiper Belt Object.”

Among the many questions that are unanswered is whether the new celestial body, if a planet, has an atmosphere; that the object could not be sensed by the infra-red Spitzer Telescope (which the Brown team tried to do) suggests that it is just “an icy rock.”

The Ancient Data

So is it Nibiru? Have astronomers now found the planet from which, according to my understanding of Mesopotamian and biblical texts and illustrations, astronauts had come to Earth some 450,000 years ago?

Based on the sketchy information so far available, the answer is No.

This regrettable answer stems, first of all, from comparing the information released regarding the new object and the ancient data concerning Nibiru. The latter was described as a radiating planet (i.e. one that has its own heat source and atmosphere), a planet that sustains life, home planet of the Anunnaki (“Those who from heaven to Earth came”) – the biblical Nefilim.

When the Mesopotamian Epic of Creation (Enuma Elish) is treated, as I have suggested, as a sophisticated cosmogony and not as an allegorical myth, the origin and composition of a twelve member solar system become clear. While the existence of varied celestial objects including numerous moons of various planets have been recognized in the ancient texts (and depictions), only our Moon and only Pluto (once Saturn’s moon) have been included in the count. Together with all the planets we know of today (including those discovered only in the past 150 years) and one more – Nibiru – the Sun’s “family” added up to twelve.

Such a solar system was depicted repeatedly on cylinder seals and monuments (now on display in museums in London and Berlin), as shown by illustrations in my books. One made famous by my writings is cylinder seal VA-243 in the Berlin Museum of Near Eastern antiquities, which shows the complete solar system with Nibiru passing between Jupiter and Mars when its orbit brings it back to our vicinity:

The cylinder seal is only a little larger than an inch, engraved (as all such seals were) in reverse. The sizes of the planets shown can thus be considered only approximations, relative to each other. Even so, it is evident that Nibiru was deemed not only much larger than Pluto, but also than Earth.

It was not an “icy rock” in the Kuiper Belt.

The Search For “Planet X”

It so happened that just two weeks before the recent news, at the Sitchin Reunion in Chicago July 15 – 16, 2005, I reviewed the search for “Planet X” by various astronomers. A significant highlight of that search was the announcement in December 1983 by NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory that IRAS (the infra-red telescope) has found a planet, much larger than Earth, moving in the distant heavens in our direction. The announcement – hastily retracted as a “misunderstanding” – prompted the Reagan-Gorbachov meetings and President Reagan’s speech at the U.N. about the common danger to Mankind from “an alien planet out there.”

My audience was treated both to a video presentation of Reagan’s speech (and Soviet video footage concerning the Phobos Incident), and to a never-before-shown video of my interview of the astronomer who was in charge of the official U.S. government search for Planet X -- Dr. Robert Harrington at the United States Naval Observatory. Speaking of the planet as a matter-of-fact, Dr. Harrington described it as 2 -3 times the size or mass of Earth, with an atmosphere, “habitable;” and compared its position to the one in my books' drawings:

Dr. Harrington died suddenly soon after our interview in August 1991; but what he knew, and what the ancients knew, must remain the only valid criterion for answering the imperative question: Is it Nibiru?

ZECHARIA SITCHIN ©2005

I must add just one thing here and that is, As we develope new technology i believe we will find alot more planets in our solar system, That have so far been blind to us.

Fascinating!! I've only finished the first of Sitchin's great books, but I have always been intrigued by this topic. I know others denounce Sitchin for selectively choosing evidence, or incomplete knowledge in certain fields, but he brings up ideas and facts that can't be ignored.

Maybe some of the spacemen = Ancient Gods stuff is out there and hard to believe, but some of his evidence is kind of hard to ignore.

The cylinder seal Va 243
represents the new year ceremony when the king reaffirmed his right to rule
this occured in march during the vernal equinox
right above mesopotamia at this time are the pleides, which is why it was THE most important constellation for them
They called it MUL.MUL. which translates as Star and stars

of course when sitchen wrote his first crappy book this information wasn't available.
and do you know he hasn't issued a retraction because he sells millions of books a year to people that know nothing of sumerian astrology or kingship
Thats what is called a "good marketing strategy"
Any more question ?

heh .this image reminds me about an documentary that I saw on tv
it was about this ancient people how or visited by giant aliens from a planet in our solar system
this aliens mated with the most beautiful women as a result giants came to life
the guy on the throne is the king of those people (his a giant)
as you can see theres our solar system in the left corner with 9 planets//well....
those aliens are from the 9 planet the one near pluto that we discovered/
soon we will discover that is life on that planet!!!!

Ive always been interested in Sitchin's work and now that we have discovered this tenth planet im even more interested . I find it laughable that he knew of this planet even before it was discovered.

Maybe he just lucky with all the planets it would stand to reason there would be more.

I still think "Planet X" AKA Nibiru AKA Sedna is reeeeeal

I Hate to say it, I really don't think it's really and i have to wonder about Sitchin's mental state as he wrote all this mess.

One of the many problems with Sitchen is that he included Pluto/Charon as a planet. But if Pluto's a planet then really, so too must be Quaoar and Sedna and this latest discovery and goodness knows how many other KBOs.

And had Pluto/Charon not been known of when he wrote his books you can bet your life he'd have decided Titan or something should be classified as a planet (as he did our own Moon) in order to fit his theory.

Odd that a person would be taken to task for calling Pluto what every astronomer calls it . . . a planet. The controversy over what is and what is not a planet is much newer that when Stichen wrote The Twelfth Planet. Pluto was labeled a planet at the time of its discovery in 1930 by the International Astronomical Union which has authority over such matters. For Pluto's official status to change, that same international group would have to rule on a change. Until that happens, Pluto is classified as a planet by the only authority qualified to call it such.

Then you will believe anything; there can be little doubt. Just wait until the 11th planet is announced later this year...

Now, considering the moon (our moon, that is) can never be considered a planet, nor can any other moons, the latest discovery does support Sitchen (for the moment) - sort of. UB313 is clearly a planet(oid), and like Pluto, meets the minmum criteria for being such. Unlike moons, planets circumnavigate the solar system, not another planet... That is the bare minimum. So, scratch the moons off of the lists, and add UB313 - Viola! 10 planets. But, like Essan pointed out - there are more, and will be frequent announcements from now on. Soon, anything orbiting the sun will either be a comet or a planet.

In reality, there are really only 8 planets, but we can let the Sitchenites have their 15 minutes - there are exactly 2 minutes left.

Yes, Planet X is quite real. It's been put to print in one of the most spectacular pieces of sci fi propaganda that has come around in quite some time. So that alone must make it an idisputable fact.

Gene Rodenberry, though a man of keen cosmological foresight and story telling, RIP, would have had a ton of fun if he was ever to have been given an opportunity to turn it into another space odyssey.