You are invited to join scientists in looking for new planets

Just in case you’re really excited about the discovery of new planets and want to join in the search, here’s a link to the Planet Hunters, where they are looking for people like you. http://www.planethunters.org/ (By the way, normally I would be able to create a live link for you to click on to take you to the Planet Hunters’ website. However, I just made an upgrade on my WordPress.org blog–I’ve done this many times before without a problem–but this time, for some strange reason, I can no longer make live links for you to follow, nor can I add metatags to my posts, nor can I bold text or add photographs to blog posts. Sorry. It will probably take me a while to figure this one out. Thanks for being patient.)

I am excited about looking at the stars and about learning about new planet discoveries. I also want to help those people who become frightened when someone tells them that NASA scientists are keeping secret the discovery of a new planet, Nibiru, and that the ancient Maya knew about Nibiru (they didn’t) and have prophecies saying that Nibiru would end the world as we know it on December 21, 2012. No such Mayan prophecies exist. People have actually told me that they believe this based on what they believe to be real videos (they aren’t) of this planet crashing toward earth.

Nonetheless, the real discoveries of real new planets are wonderful and are being shared with anyone who cares to search for them on the World Wide Web.

The Kepler Space Telescope is finding new planets

The Kepler Space Telescope may find Planet-X also known as Nibiru, that is, if it actually exists. Nibiru is supposed to be connected with the 2012 end of the world Mayan prophecies. As it is, Kepler is find many potential planets. A February 3, 2011 New York Times article says:

NASA’s Kepler is a $600 million satellite telescope that monitors the stars. Its job is to conduct a kind of Gallup poll of worlds in the cosmos.

On Feb. 3, 2011, in a long-awaited announcement, Kepler scientists reported that they had identified 1,235 possible planets orbiting other stars, potentially tripling the number of known planets.

Of the new candidates, 68 are one and a quarter times the size of the Earth or smaller — smaller, that is, than any previously discovered planets outside the solar system, which are known as exoplanets. Fifty-four of the possible exoplanets are in the so-called habitable zones of stars dimmer and cooler than the Sun, where temperatures should be moderate enough for liquid water.about the Kepler space telescope that is finding planets:

Kepler Space Telescope

Two new planets, the first ever that are about the size of earth

This illustrated graphic shows the two newfound Kepler-20 planets shown to scale with Earth and Venus.

Continuing with my quest to find if NASA, astronomers, and other planet discoverers and enthusiastically sharing their findings of new planets with the world or keeping them secret. I am motivated to research these discoveries, because people I know have become so wrapped up in the 2012 / end of the world / Nibiru mania that they actually believe there is a conspiracy to keep secret the discovery of one very special planet, Nibiru, that supposedly carries aliens who have been on earth before.

My experience with amateur astronomers and professional scientists is that they want to publish their discoveries as soon as possible so that someone else does not get the credit for their discovery. They do not keep their discoveries secret.

Above, find artist’s impressions of what these two newly discovered planets, the first ever found that are about the same size as earth, might look like. They are not photographs. These planets are 15,000 light years away where no earth satellite and therefore, no camera has ever gone before. The image was created through cooperation between NASA/JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories)), Cal Tech (California Institute of Technology) and T. Pyle (probably the artist).

New planets are discovered by the following process:

To discover the new planets, Fressin and his colleagues used NASA’s Kepler space telescope, which noticed the tiny dips in the parent star’s brightness when the planets passed in front of it, blocking some of its light (this is called the transit method). The researchers then used ground-based observatories to confirm that the planets actually exist by measuring minute wobbles in the star’s position caused by gravitational tugs from its planets.

First Ever Earth-sized Alien Planets Discovered

By the way, the new planets are called “alien” planets not because they carry aliens, that is to say extraterrestrials, but because they are alien or foreign to earth’s solar system.

Two new planets announced yesterday!

Here’s another exciting example of astronomers announcing to the world their discovery of two new planets. In fact, this announcement is so new, it is only one day old:

The newly confirmed planets, called Kepler-34b and Kepler-35b, were announced in January 11 online edition of the journal Nature, said Eric B. Ford, UF associate professor of astronomy. William F. Welsh, associate professor at San Diego State University, is the lead author on the paper.

Two New Planets Discovered Orbiting Double Suns

As NASA astrobiologist David Morrison said, astronomers could not keep secret the discovery of a planet such as the infamous Nibiru. The story is that the reason astronomers and NASA are not announcing to the public the entry of Nibiru into close proximity to the earth is because there is a conspiracy to keep the information secret.

I don’t think so. Since astronomers are announcing their finds of other planets, they would also announce the discovery of Nibiru, which is supposed to cause the end of the world coincident with the Mayan calendar‘s end on December 21, 2012.

Amateur Astronomers help to find a new planet. Is it Nibiru?

New planet discovered 15,000 light years from earth Photo from online Astrobiology Magazine

I’ve been discussing the fears that there may be a conspiracy to keep secret the arrival of a new planet called Nibiru that is somehow going to cause the end of the world on December 21, 2012.

NASA Astrobiologist David Morrison says he doesn’t know an astronomer, professional or amateur, who could be made to keep silent about something as exciting as finding a new planet.

For example, two amateur astronomers in New Zealand helped professional astronomers at Ohio State University to discover a new planet far, far away from our solar system. The new planet is 15,000 light years away, which means that it takes light 15,000 years to travel from the new planet to here. As a comparison it takes only 8 minutes for light to travel from our sun to here. Even if this new planet was on its way to earth, it would take it longer than 15,000 years to get here since a planet travels much slower than light.

And because two amateur astronomers in New Zealand helped detect the planet using only their backyard telescopes, the find suggests that anyone can become a planet hunter.

Backyard Astronomers Discover Planet

By the way, this is not the legendary perhaps fictional Nibiru since Nibiru is supposed to be close to or within our solar system.

Astronomers have NOT kept secret the discovery of planet Nibiru

In yesterday’s post, I quoted NASA astrobiologist David Morrison as saying that astronomers would not keep secret the discovery of a new planet such as Nibiru, because, “astronomers of the world, both professional and amateur, are a free-spirited group who couldn’t keep a secret even if ordered to,…”

I’d have to agree with Dr. Morrison. You have to remember that many astronomers, both professional and amateur, are looking for new planets in the night sky.

You can imagine that if you found a new planet, you would want the world to know before one of the other astronomers scanning the night skies for new planets found it and claimed the discovery.

Therefore, not only do astronomers reveal whatever they find, they try to publish the information as soon as possible so they can be the first on record as finding it.

If Nibiru had been found, whoever had found it would let the world know they had found it. Nibiru is supposed to be a portent of the 2012 doomsday.

In conclusion, astronomers have not kept secret the discovery of planet Nibiru, because it has not appeared, except in books about the theory of the return of planet Nibiru.

Planet Nibiru should be here by now

I love this quote from NASA astrobiologist David Morrison. He is referring to allegations that there is a conspiracy to keep secret from the public that: 1. a rogue planet is heading for earth (since 2003 but strangely, it hasn’t got here yet), 2. This rogue planet has a 3,600 year orbit and was discovered by the ancient Mesopotamians who called it Nibiru, 3. The ancient Maya knew about this planet and associated it with the end of the world in 2012. Evidently many people believe the information is being kept secret from the public. These people believe that Nibiru would be visible with the naked eye in 2009 (and should therefore now in 2012 be really visible with the naked eye but is not) and even before that time, the earth’s axis would be tilting (I assume more than it is tilted presently) causing a change in the length of the day. Morrison’s answer to those to accuse astronomers of keeping this information secret is:

I was introduced to this conspiracy theory in December 2007, when I began to receive questions about Nibiru submitted to NASA’s “Ask an Astrobiologist” Web site. I normally receive about a dozen questions per week from the public dealing mostly with life in the universe, but sometimes they include UFOs and visiting aliens. Nibiru seemed different, since it was claimed to be an actual planet that was being tracked by astronomers but hidden from the public. Knowing that the astronomers of the world, both professional and amateur, are a free-spirited group who couldn’t keep a secret even if ordered to, I assumed that Nibiru was the sort of Internet rumor that would quickly pass.
~ The Myth of Nibiru and the End of the World in 2012

NASA on Planet Nibiru, 2012 and the end of the world

If you’re looking for some real scientific answers to questions about Nibiru, 2012, and the end of the world, here’s a great NASA website in which NASA Space Scientist David Morrison answers questions such as the following. Check it out, there’s also a video.

6. There are many photos and videos of Nibiru on the Internet. Isn’t that proof that it exists?
The great majority of the photos and videos on the Internet are of some feature near the Sun (apparently supporting the claim that Nibiru has been hiding behind the Sun for the past several years.) These are actually false images of the Sun caused by internal reflections in the lens, often called lens flare. You can identify them easily by the fact that they appear diametrically opposite the real solar image, as if reflected across the center of the image. This is especially obvious in videos, where as the camera moves, the false image dances about always exactly opposite the real image. Similar lens flare is a source of many UFO photos taken at night with strong light sources such as streetlights in the frame. I am surprised that people don’t recognize this common photo artifact. I am also amazed that these photos showing something nearly as large and bright as the Sun (a “second sun”) are accepted together with claims made on some of the same websites that Nibiru is too faint to be seen or photographed except with large telescopes.

Nibiru and Doomsday 2012: Questions and Answers

According to Guatemala Maya, the end of the world is NOT nigh!

A Guardian UK article by Kevin Rushby says:

In Guatemala City I sought out Antonio Cuxil, a Mayan and an expert on the Mayan calendar. He explained that 2012 was mentioned in just one place in all the Mayan writings: on a stone inscription dating from around 700AD found in Mexico.

“It is the end of a 5,126-year cycle, that’s true, but there is no mention of the end of the world. People seem to have got that from the Dresden Codex [a pre-Columbian volume of Mayan writings now in the State Library of Dresden]. But in that record there is no mention of 2012.”

The End of the World is Nigh? Not What the Guatemala Mayans Say

Mayan Mythology, 2012, and the end of the world

A Live Science article by Benjamin Radford addresses the doomsday meaning of the end of the Mayan calendar on December 21 2012. Radford says that:

In fact, the link between global catastrophe and Mayan calendar-based prophecy is largely fiction. Ads for “2012” begin with the phrase, “The Mayans warned us,” though of course the Mayans did not “warn” anyone — they simply had a calendar system that happens to “end” in 2012, much as the way the Gregorian calendar on my office wall “ends” on Dec. 31.
The Truth about 2012 Doomsday Hype