Elenin, Nibiru and Why You Won't Die in 2012

The doomsday astronomy is really getting out of hand. I won’t lie, I saw both 90’s asteroid-destroys-Earth movies. I think most humans are fascinated by the idea that something from space could end existence as we know it. 

With the Mayan end-of-the-world deadline rapidly approaching, amateur astronomers and conspiracy theorists are churning out theories about comets guiding mysterious brown dwarf planets toward Earth and NASA’s obvious cover-up of the entire impending disaster.

I think it’s time to clear up a few things about the comet Elenin and the supposed brown dwarf Nibiru. Let’s explore the origin of the theories, which date back to Babylonian times. 

The ancient Babylonians worshiped many gods, with Marduk being their highest creator god. Each god had its own planet, and Marduk’s was the largest in the sky. The Babylonians called it “Nibiru”. Nibiru rose and became visible around the fall equinox, a sign that the Babylonian’s Nibiru could be Jupiter. It’s also possible the ancient civilization called all stars used for navigation “Nibiru”.  Regardless, Nibiru is not an extra planet that will show itself in October 2012. 

Sci-fi writer Zecharia Sitchin furthered the myth by using Nibiru in his writings. He believed an ancient alien race lived on the planet, which visited our solar system once every 4,000 years. His interpretations of physics and mythology have been ridiculed by the scientific community. Though he plays a large part in keeping the Nibiru myth alive, his findings and conclusions are based on nothing scientific or academic. 

Elenin is a distant long-period comet discovered by Leonard Elenin in 2009. The conspiracy has changed over the years to suit the scientific evidence. First, theorists speculated the comet itself would impact Earth. Now it is believed the comet is dragging a large brown dwarf planet toward Earth which would cause a catastrophic collision.

NASA and amateur astronomers are carefully tracking Elenin, though it poses no real threat to Earth. It will pass closely by Earth on October 16, 2012. When I say “close”, I mean close in terms of the size of the entire universe. It is predicted to be no closer than 22 million miles from Earth. For comparison, the short-period Honda comet passed by Earth on August 15 at a distance of only 5 million miles. You didn’t even notice, did you?

Neither of these cosmic bodies pose a real or impending threat to Earth. It is merely an Internet legend, keeping itself alive through conspiracy forums and YouTube videos. Though it’s very easy to believe that NASA withholds certain information, I don’t think there’s any merit to the Nibiru/Elenin theory. It is a patchwork theory crafted from several sources, including works of science fiction, that probably provides a nice distraction to what NASA might actually be doing and hiding from the public.