NASA scientist debunks doomsday rumours over mysterious planet Nibiru

NASA scientist David Morrison has, however, debunked these rumours.

“You’re asking me for a logical explanation of a totally illogical idea,” Morrison was quoted as saying by The Washington Post. “There is no such planet, there never has been, and presumably there never will be — but it keeps popping up over and over,” he said in Search for Extraterrestrial Life Intelligence (SETI) Institute’s podcast. But the Nibiru believers claim NASA wants to ‘hide the truth’ from the masses while ‘global elite’ escape to the safety of secret underground bunkers.

Morrison, who works at NASA Ames, said he initially thought the rumours would pass. His “Ask an Astrobiologist” website had become inundated with predictions that Nibiru was going to cross paths with Earth in 2012. “I now receive at least one question per day, ranging from anguished (‘I can’t sleep; I am really scared; I don’t want to die’) to the abusive (‘Why are you lying; you are putting my family at risk; if NASA denies it then it must be true.’)” he has been quoted as saying by The Washington Post.

Believers claim the increase in the number of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are caused by the gravitational pull of Nibiru.

While there is a debate on whether it is a planet or a “black star”, conspiracy theorists have used Nibiru to make a range of predictions. According to popular imagination, Nibiru, or Planet X, is a hypothetical planet on the edge of the solar system that orbits the sun every 3,600 years, the Daily Mail reported.

In reply to a question on what would happen if Nibiru enters the solar system, Dr Morrison said, “If a big object was coming into the solar system its gravity would perturb the orbits of the planets, and we would have detected that long before it came close to the Earth. The moon would have been ejected, and obviously, that is not the case.”

He also added that the conjectures were pointless since “Nibiru does not exist.”

Should you cancel your Sunday brunch reservation? No.