Tiamat (hypothetical planet)
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Tiamat is the name of a planet theorized by a handful of fringe scientists to have existed between Mars and Jupiter. The concept of now vanished hypothetical planet existing where the asteroid belt now lies was first proposed in the Phaeton Theory. She is named for the Babylonian mother goddess Tiamat. The idea of a hypothetical fifth planet has served as the basis for many science fiction stories, including Ocean by Warren Ellis and the Hidden History trilogy by Burak Eldem.
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[edit] The Tiamat Hypothesis
A small number of scientists theorise that Tiamat was an ancient planet between Mars and Jupiter. Their ideas favour a combination of both the Theia and Phaeton hypotheses. They postulate that in a much differently-shaped solar system it was a thriving world, with jungles and oceans, whose orbit was disrupted by the arrival of a very small star (less then twenty times the size of Jupiter) that passed through the solar system between 65 million and four billion years ago.
The new orbits caused Tiamat to collide with this star or planet, which is known as Nibiru. The debris from this collision are thought by the theory's proponents to have formed the asteroid belt. The majority of the planet Tiamat survived the impact, and was thrown into a more stable orbit as the third planet in the solar system, Earth, forming the moon.
Some sources state that Tiamat may actually have been struck twice, first by one of Nibiru's moons, breaking it into two separate pieces, and a second time when Nibiru itself struck one of the twin large planetoids. This version of the theory proposes that the half struck a second time was reduced to the rubble we now know as the asteroid belt, and that the larger portion was pushed into the earth, possibly acting as the Mars-sized object of the giant impact hypothesis. Although most scientists argue that the scenario is improbable, the idea's supporters argue that it would explain how the Earth's continents were divided and would also explain why the Earth is layered in sediments.
Further variation on the Tiamat hypothesis conjectures that when the inintial collision took place, the planet lost its gravitational hold on its largest satellite, Kingu, which became our Moon. In this same line of thought, the disruption caused by Nibiru's passing may have caused a satellite of Saturn, Gaga, to move outside of Neptune and become Pluto.
Tiamat's destruction can also be used as an explanation for many creation myths dealing with chaos from a fallen angel or other general light/dark god themes, especially the Sumerian.
[edit] Tiamat in literature
- Zecharia Sitchin's Earth Chronicles revolve largely around the planet Tiamat.
- 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.
- Joan D. Vinge's Hugo award winning novel, The Snow Queen, takes place on a planet called Tiamat. This planet, however, orbits a distant black hole and is not part of our Solar system.
