A historian by the name of Zecharia Sitchin proposed the existence of a 12th planet that was inhabited by a race called the Annunaki. His work and claims are based on his translations of ancient Sumerian texts and some biblical references that have been twisted to meet the needs of many conspiracy enthusiasts. In this article I will give you the gist of his theory of the ancient astronaut, and show you how his work is nothing but bunk and erroneous translation.
Sitchin based all of his work on his personal translations of Sumerian cosmology. Based on this he proposed that there is an undiscovered planet. This ”12th planet”, called Nibiru, follows a long, elliptical orbit, reaching the inner solar system roughly every 3,600 years. According to Sitchin, a moon of Nibiru collided with Tiamat, another supposed planet located by Sitchin between Mars and Jupiter. This collision formed the planet Earth, asteroid belt, and the comets. According to Sitchin, the remains of Tiamat are what is now known as Earth. When struck by one of Nibiru’s moons, Tiamat split in two. On a second pass Nibiru itself struck the broken fragments and one half of Tiamat became the asteroid belt. The other half, was struck again by one of Nibiru’s moons, and was pushed into a new orbit and became Earth. On Sitchin’s Nibiru there existed a technologically advanced human-like race. This race is called the Anunnaki in Sumerian myth and are called the Nephilim in the book of Genesis. He claims they first arrived on Earth about 450,000 years ago, looking for minerals, especially gold. These “gods” were the rank and file workers of the colonial expedition to Earth from Nibiru. Sitchin believes the Anunnaki genetically engineered man as a slave workforce to man their gold mines. This was supposedly done by crossing extraterrestrial genes with those of Homo erectus. Sitchin claims that his research coincides with many biblical texts, and that biblical texts come originally from Sumerian writings. While this is a very simple rundown of Sitchin’s theory, you can understand the general idea.
While this theory has a resemblance to several scientific theories-especially the giant impact theory that attempts to explain the Moon-there are many holes in his translations and basic science. Until recently, only specialists could read the ancient Sumerian texts, but, thanks to the publication of the Sumerian Lexicon, nearly every one who wants to can translate Sumerian writings. So, should you want to put the work forward, you can see that Mr. Sitchin made many assumptions and contradictory translations in his work. In fact, his translations of individual words and of larger portions of ancient texts are generally found to be incorrect.
Next, let’s look at the exaggerated orbit of Nibiru. The belief that Nibiru returns to the inner solar system regularly every 3,600 years, implies an orbit with a semi-major axis of 235 astronomical units. That means it would extend from the asteroid belt to twelve times farther beyond Sol than Pluto. The elementary perturbation theory indicates that, even under the most favorable circumstances, it would probably collide with other planets and, if not, no celestial body with such an eccentric orbit would keep the same period for two consecutive passages. The most optimistic estimates show that within twelve orbits the object would be either ejected from the solar system or be converted to a short period object.
Furthermore, the Annunaki are supposed to have evolved on Nibiru. This plainly means that a humanoid lifeform would have had to develop on a planet that spends 99% of its orbit well beyond Pluto. Knowing that Pluto has an average surface temperature of -375°F, you can figure that a planet that ranges much farther from the Sun would, by simple logic, have a much harsher environment. Sitchin claims that this is eliminated by radioactive decay and a very thick atmosphere. These qualities are supposed to keep the planet warm, but both would, in turn, make life on the planet untenable.
At every turn the claims of the Annunaki and the entire 12th planet theory have been proven to be false. I would say that Mr. Sitchin sold enough books to retire comfortably and that was his plan all along. It is my hope that you are better able to see through the ridiculousness of these excited overstatements and pseudoscience claims.
True science and astronomy have recently found evidence that there may be an object beyond the Kuiper belt that is smaller than Pluto. Here on Universe Today we have a great article about the death of a star that was beyond the limits of our solar system. The quest for Planet X by real scientist led to the discovery of two of our planets. Astronomy Cast offers a good episode about that search.
Source: Wikipedia
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