I have had enough of this Nibiru crap. Honestly the people who believe this need to get a life.
See my posts in the 2012 thread. I added all of them just to debunk any other crazy ideas you got from lunatics like Nancy Lieder.
QUOTE(Siguy @ Jan 28 2008, 03:03 PM)
The most ridiculous of the assumptions is that "Nibiru" is going to pass through the inner solar system and will cause earth's magnetic poles to shift, supposedly "ripping apart continents, causing tsunamis" etc.
This is idiotic. First of all, if there were an object the size of Nibiru (said to be the size of Jupiter or even a red dwarf) were on its way to the inner solar system to arrive by 2012, then it would be among the brightest objects in the night sky.
Second of all, the Earth's magnetic pole is constantly moving. It shifts every few million years, and it doesn't do any damage. The Earth's magnetic field is generated by the core of the Earth, which is liquid and flows naturally.
Sometimes people even say that Earth will stop rotating. Let me tell you that is IMPOSSIBLE.
On this page, Phil Plait calculates that the kinetic energy in the Earth's core's rotation is equivalent to five trillion megatons, or 500 million times the explosive energy of every nuclear weapon on earth. That much energy would probably destroy the earth.
Edit: The Bad Astronomer also has a page on Planet X/Nibiru:
http://www.badastron...netx/index.htmlQUOTE(Siguy @ Feb 3 2008, 08:40 AM)
Erm...
I am sorry to say, but that is all wrong. You new-agey type need to actually pay attention to real science. First of all, a planet does not form in the way you described. Second, a planet's magnetic poles are not always on their true poles. Earth's magnetic field is generated by the molten core rotating, which can move, since it is molten. Third, we have dug more than twelve kilometers deep. See the
Kola Superdeep Borehole. Finally, the continents move, so it is clear that at one point places on Earth which are barren once flourished with life.
QUOTE(Siguy @ Feb 15 2008, 08:22 PM)
WTF??? Okay... If that was your
science teacher, then you really need to go to a better school. Seriously. First of all, the only satellites of Earth are the moon, and thousands of pieces of space debris. There are no asteroids orbiting the earth. Second of all, if you want to destroy the earth,
it is very hard to do. A tiny asteroid simply wouldn't cut it. It might cause a mass extinction, but it would be unlikely to wipe out
all life. Nature can take some serious blows. (to tell you the truth, we are probably one of the biggest disasters to happen to the earth, but it's surviving somewhat well) Third, the word meteor is incorrectly used. "Meteor" refers to a meteoroid, or a piece of space dust or debris that burns up in the atmosphere. A meteorite is a chunk of debris that actually impacts the surface. An asteroid is a small body of rock or metal that orbits the sun, a minor planet. They are much larger than all of the objects I just mentioned, ranging from a few kilometers, to a few thousand. The largest asteroid is Ceres, and it has
no chance whatsoever of impacting Earth. The majority of them don't.
On second thought, you may have misinterperated what he said. He may have been talking about Apophis. That was an asteroid that caused quite a scare a couple years back because it had a high probability of impacting Earth in the near future. It could have caused a huge tidal wave or large impact crater, but now the possibility of it hitting Earth is next to zero.
QUOTE(Siguy @ Feb 15 2008, 10:26 PM)
Comets do not circle the galaxy. They orbit the sun in an elliptical orbit. (Technically they do circle the galaxy as the sun orbits around the galactic center.)
It's Comet Halley, not Halley's Comet. The word comet comes before the name when comets are properly named.
But anyway, once again, there is no chance whatsoever that Comet Halley will collide with Earth. It may be famous, but it definately does not have anywhere near the right orbital path.
QUOTE(Siguy @ Feb 16 2008, 12:14 PM)
That sounds suspiciously like the plot of
a horrible space movie from 1997 or something.
Yes, we can be certain of those things. The actual probability of two objects as small as an asteroid or comet colliding is so little that I won't even bother to find quote for it. Then times the probability of the orbital change (which would be very little if at all*) sending it into collision course with Earth makes it basically nil.
*The deep impact probe sent by JPL and NASA was a mission to impact comet Tempel 1 with a 370 kg projectile and study the blast spectrographically. The approximately 5 ton (in other words, very large) explosion only changed the orbit of the comet about 10 centimeters. Nonetheless, a Russian astrologer attempted to sue NASA for 300 million because it "ruined the natural balance of forces of the universe". Shows you what lunatics astrologers are.
Also, if it were the size mentioned and destined to arrive by 2012, then EVERY ASTRONOMER ON THE PLANET would know about it, since it would be one of the brightest objects in the night sky.
