Nibiru (hypothetical planet)
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To the Babylonians, Nibiru was the celestial body or region sometimes associated with the god Marduk. The word is Akkadian and the meaning is uncertain. Because of this, the hypothetical planet Nibiru is sometimes also referred to as Marduk.
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[edit] Archaeoastronomy
Due to its use in opposition to the phrase itebbiru "who used to cross," Landsberger and Kinnier Wilson1 suggest that it refers to a stationary point in the heavens.1 In a reconstruction of Tablet V of the Enûma Elish by Landsberger and Kinnier Wilson, the word ni-bi-ri (variant: ni-bi-ru and ni-bi-a-na) is translated as "pole star."1 The authors add in the footnotes that "Applied to Marduk, there is no question that in the late periods nēberu is a planet, whether Jupiter or Mercury" however for the referenced translation of Tablet V, "pole star" is used.1
[edit] Theory
Some fringe authors believe that the obsevations of ancient astronomers provide proof that Niribu is an actual planet or brown dwarf in our solar system. These claims are for the most part dismissed as fringe or pseudoscience by the mainstream scientific communities of archaeology and astronomy.
According to proponents such as Zecharia Sitchin and Burak Eldem, the Nibiru appearing in Sumerian records correctly refers to a large planetary body. Their research proposes that it possesses a highly elliptical, 3630-year orbit. Such a planet would be approximately in the same orbit as 2000 CR105.
According to these theories of Sumerian cosmology, Nibiru was the twelfth member in the solar system family of planets (which includes 10 planets, the Sun, and the Moon). Its catastrophic collision with Tiamat, a planet that was between Mars and Jupiter, would have formed the planet Earth, the asteroid belt, and the Moon. It was the home of a technologically advanced human-like alien race, the Anunnaki of Sumerian myth, who, Sitchin claims, survived and later came to Earth. This is in keeping with the ancient astronaut theory, of which Sitchin is a proponet. According to Sitchin, they subsequently genetically engineered our species, originally as slave animals to work in their gold mines, by crossing their genes with those of Homo erectus. His claims are roundly dismissed by the serious scientific community as bad science in light of the lack of inexplicable alien DNA in our genetic code.
Sitchin says some sources speak about the same planet, possibly being a brown dwarf star and still in a highly elliptic orbit around the Sun, with a perihelion passage some 3,600 years ago and assumed orbital period of about 3,600 to 3,760 years or 3,741 years. Sitchin attributes these figures to astronomers of the Maya civilization. However, scientists argue that a planet with such an orbit would eventually either develop a circular orbit or fly off into space and overwhelmingly consider Sitchin's claims to be pseudoscience. A brown dwarf with a period of 3,760 years would be clearly evident through infrared and gravitational observations.
[edit] Nibiru in literature
- Zecharia Sitchin's Earth Chronicles (6 volumes) and his other works deal with Niribu as it applies to his take on Sumerian mythology and its resonance in other myths and legends around the world.
- Burak Eldem's Hidden History trilogy expands upon and many of Sitchin's ideas while challenging his tendency towards revising history in favor of creation science.
- The Outlanders series by Mark Ellis written under his pen name of James Axler deals with Nibiru as the homeworld of the ancient Anunnaki who colonized Earth half a million years ago. In 2001, Enlil engineered a global nuclear holocaust to make Earth more like Nibiru.
- In H.G. Wells' short story The Star, a rogue planet or small star causes havoc throughout the solar system in a manner nearly identical to the behavior of the hypothetical Nibiru. The only significant difference is that in Wells' version, the object destroys not the fifth planet, but Neptune, currently regarded as the eighth major planet from the sun.
[edit] Notes
- Note 1: "The Fifth Tablet of Enuma Eliš", B. Landsberger and J. V. Kinnier Wilson, Journal of Near Eastern Studies: Vol. 20, No. 3. (Jul., 1961), pp. 174-176.
