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12th Planet

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The 12th Planet is a hypothetical planet proposed by ancient astronaut theorist Zecharia Sitchin. Sitchin claims Nibiru (also called Marduk) is the 12th planet, or Planet X. His claims are considered to be fantasy by mainstream scientists and historians.

According to James Evans in The History and Practice of Ancient Astronomy, Hugh Thurston in Early Astronomy, and Gale Christianson in This Wild Abyss, Babylonian astronomers used the names Marduk and Nibriu-Marduk to refer to the planet Jupiter.

According to Sitchin's 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 and the asteroid belt and comets. It was the home of a powerful alien race Anunnaki (Ningischzida) of Sumerian myth, who, Sitchin claims, survived and later came to Earth.

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. 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. Sitchin attributes these figures to astronomers of the Maya civilization. However, a brown dwarf with a period of 3,760 years would be clearly evident through infrared and gravitational observations.

In a recently published book, titled 2012: Appointment With Marduk, Turkish writer/researcher Burak Eldem presents a new theory, suggesting a 3,661 years orbital period for the planet and claiming a "return date" in the year 2012 AD. According to Eldem's theory, 3,661 is one-seventh of 25,627, which is the total time span of "5 World Ages" according to Mayan Long Count Calendar system. The last orbital passage of Marduk, he adds, was in 1649 BC and caused great catastrophes on earth, including the Thera eruption.

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