Those of you who follow developments in scientific world are sure to have heard about the 2012 prophecies and the resurgence in the research about planet X it has caused. The Maya of meso-America are known to have had very sophisticated calendars to keep track of time. They had, in fact, more than one calendars for keeping track of time based on various heavenly bodies. Of these, the Long count calendar was the principal one and goes on for 5125 solar years. Therefore, based on its (uncertain) start date of August 11, 3114 BC, its first cycle is set to end on December 21, 2012 AD. Since the calendar “ends” on this date, there have been predictions that the world will come to an end on this day. However, most of us will agree with what Dr Karl Kruszelnicki has to say, “…..when a calendar comes to the end of a cycle, it just rolls over into the next cycle. In our Western society, every year 31 December is followed, not by the End of the World, but by 1 January. So 13.0.0.0.0 in the Mayan calendar will be followed by 0.0.0.0.1 – or good-ol’ 22 December 2012, with only a few shopping days left to Christmas.” At least I like to think this way! According to the Wikipedia entry on 2012, “2012 is claimed by some with New age beliefs to be a great year of spiritual transformation (or alternatively an apocalypse). There is disagreement among believers as to whether 2012 will see an end of civilization, or humanity will be elevated to a higher level.“

It seems like the humankind is slightly masochistic in nature as we enjoy entertaining the thought of large-scale destruction on this planet that will wipe out all or most of us. This is apparent from the successful runs at the box office that movies like Day after tomorrow, Deep impact etc. enjoy. So with the predictions of apocalypse in Dec 2012 came various theories about how the world will end. The most “accepted” one is passing of a massive astronomical object from very near the Earth and its gravitational effects causing mass destruction on Earth, wiping out most or all life on the planet. Even though there are no known massive “stray” objects in our solar system that can play the role of this “terminator” of sorts, there are some indications of an existence of such an objects on the far outskirts of the solar system. NASA and modern astronomers are detecting patterns in the orbits and spins of outer planets which suggest the presence of a massive body (planet or otherwise) in the vicinity. Couple of the planetoids found (Sedna and Xena) do not have sufficient mass to explain the effects observed. Therefore, our astronomers still seem to be looking for the right candidate for Planet X, where X signifies both ‘unknown’ and the Roman numeral 10, the number the planet would have if found.

The search (or re-search) is made more tantalising by the claims of some researchers of ancient culture and knowledge, that the ancient Sumerians did know of such a planet, 7-8 times larger than Earth and that had an extremely elliptical orbit around the Sun completed in 3600 Earth years, called Nibiru. The ancient clay tablets describe the solar system as having 12 planets, Nibiru (the planet of crossing) being the 12th one. They tell us about the earlier “crossing” of this planet with the orbits of the others and the consequences of it, one of which was the creation of Earth itself! There are myriad of websites, books and videos about research about Planet X and its possible connection with Sumerian planet Nibiru. The two most extensive and informative websites I found on this topic are Jason Martell’s xFacts.com (the Planet X research and Ancient artifacts sections) and Robert Sepehr’s Planet X video. Jason has done some extensive research into the Planet X – Nibiru connection based on Dr. Zecharia Sitchin‘s research. His website also boasts of the largest online informative collection of Sumerian artifacts. Robert Sepehr’s video channel features interviews with various researchers of this topic. It also has information on past research on the subject and noted researchers (including Einstein’s support to the Crustal displacement theory).

Whether the supposed Planet X / Nibiru will cause the apocalypse on Earth, in 2012 or earlier or later, I find this research topic interesting as it brings a fact to the forefront which we all, if we are true scientists, should acknowledge. We ARE NOT the most advanced (technologically, spiritually or culturally) humans that have existed on this planet and there is A LOT we can learn from the past…..about our future. Because progress is cyclic, not linear.