Twelve years ago, YouTube videos about apocalypses were streamed online worldwide. David Morrison, planetary astronomer at NASA estimated that two million websites discussing Earth’s impending doom had been set up.
“At least a once a week I get a message from a young person ― as young as 11 ― who says they are ill and/or are contemplating suicide because of the coming doomsday,” Morrison told Life’s Little Mysteries.
In 2012, the fear of a cataclysmic clash of Earth with a large planetary object (Planet Nibiru) gripped the world.
The ancient Mayan calendar predicted that all existence would be wiped out on December 21st, 2012. Dr. John Carlson, Director of the Center for Archeoastronomy, successfully put the lid on all such conspiracy theories. He said the Mayan prediction was a misconception from the very beginning.
In his book ‘The 12th Planet’, Zecharia Stitchin used the Sumerian civilisation’s findings. He said that the planet had an oblong orbit that swung towards Earth every 3600 years and that humans had first evolved on Nibiru only to “colonize” the Earth later.
Not only did scholars prove that the Sumerian texts had been misinterpreted by Stitchin but astronomers gave further scientific evidence, saying that a planetary orbit as proposed by Stitchin was not possible.
Scientific and technical details aside, the obvious, glaring loophole in the conspiracy was the fact that Nibiru had never existed in reality. No giant planet that matched Nibiru’s description had been found in outer space.
Yet, the speculators, if only to further promote this nonsensical theory, decided that Elenin, a small comet that would pass the Earth in October 2011, was actually Nibiru. Scientists wasted no time in shutting down such rumours.
For those who had stocked up on survival kits, dystopian novels and end-of-the-world documentaries, still fearing a cosmic Armageddon, a simpler argument existed.
If Nibiru had been a real planet, heading towards Earth for destruction, astronomers would have been tracking it for the past decade. It would have been the brightest object in the sky and all one would have to do was look up to know it was non-existent.
Anoushka Chopra
XB
