There are a number of planets or moons whose existence is not supported by scientific evidence, but are proposed by various astrologers, pseudoscientists, conspiracy theorists, or certain religious groups. Some were proposed by early philosophers, and so might be considered part of protoscience, but none has ever gained any scientific acceptance.
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The work of Zecharia Sitchin has garnered much attention among ufologists, ancient astronaut theorists and conspiracy theorists. He claimed to have uncovered, through his retranslations of Sumerian texts, evidence that the human race was visited by a group of extraterrestrials from a distant planet in our own Solar System. Part of his theory lay in an astronomical interpretation of the Babylonian creation myth, the Enuma Elish, in which he replaced the names of gods with hypothetical planets. However, since the principal evidence for Sitchin's claims lay in his own personally derived etymologies and not on any scholarly agreed interpretations, academics consider it pseudoscience and pseudohistory, if they know it at all.[1][2][3]
Sitchin's theory proposes the planets Tiamat and Nibiru. Tiamat supposedly existed between Mars and Jupiter. He postulated that it was a thriving world in a very different solar system, with jungles and oceans, whose orbit was disrupted by the arrival of a large planet or very small star (less than twenty times the size of Jupiter) which passed through the solar system between 65 million and four billion years ago. The new orbits caused Tiamat to collide with one of the moons of this object, which is known as Nibiru. The debris from this collision are thought by the theory's proponents to have variously formed the asteroid belt, the Moon, and the current inclination of the planet Earth.
Sitchin claims that the Babylonians associated Nibiru with the god Marduk. The word is Akkadian and the meaning is uncertain. Sitchin hypothesized it as a planet in a highly elliptic orbit around the Sun, with a perihelion passage some 3,600 years ago and assumed orbital period of about 3,750 years; he also claimed it was the home of a technologically advanced human-like alien race, the Anunnaki, who apparently visited Earth in search of gold. These beings eventually created humanity by genetically crossing themselves with extant primates, and thus became the first gods.
Beginning in 1995, websites such as ZetaTalk have claimed that Nibiru or "Planet X" is a brown dwarf currently within our planetary system, soon to pass relatively close to Earth. Sitchin disagreed with the timing of passage.[4]
Sitchin also postulated that Pluto began life as Gaga, a satellite of Saturn which, due to gravitational disruption caused by Nibiru's passing, was flung into orbit beyond Neptune.
Joseph Smith, the founder of the Latter Day Saint movement, claimed to reveal knowledge of a number of extrasolar objects through his examination of ancient religious documents. Of principal importance was Kolob, the star or planet "nearest the throne of God".
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, proposed as part of his religious cosmology a Galactic Confederacy which consisted of 26 stars and 76 planets including Earth, which was then known as "Teegeeack".[5][6] One planet in the Scientology doctrine is known as Helatrobus.[7][8][9]
The Central Fire or Hearth of the Universe is a fiery celestial body hypothesized by the pre-Socratic philosopher Philolaus to be positioned at the center of the universe, around which all other celestial objects revolve.[10] It is analogous to the medieval empyrean, put further beyond the fixed stars, being the welkin or highest heaven. It is sometimes called "the house of Zeus" but more frequently "the mother of the gods" or "estia", after the goddess of fire and hearth, Hestia.
Philolaus' observations of the movements of the stars and planets led him to develop the firm conviction that their apparent motion was due in part to the real motion of the observer, i.e. that the Earth must rotate around not only a central point, but also on its own axis. Philolaus' Pythagorean view of the cosmos led him to believe that not only the Earth must revolve around this point, but also every other body in the universe, including the Sun.
Given the elegance and mathematical simplicity of Philolaus' ideas regarding the nature of the Earth's place in the cosmos, it is easy to understand how the idea of a central fire quickly became a fixture in the thinking of his fellow pre-Socratics. Since this celestial body was necessarily beneath the Earth at all times, its existence, at the very least, could not be disproven. However, all this created a problem in Pythagorean cosmology. The Greek philosophers did not regard the Earth as a planet. Planets, in their understanding, were composed of a fiery or ethereal matter having little or no density, a fifth element with neither negative density like Earth and Water nor positive density like Fire and Air. Since these objects existed with zero density, they could quite easily rotate eccentric to the Earth without becoming off balance. However, the Earth was obviously made of the dense elements of Earth and Water. If there were a single Earth revolving at some distance from the center of space, the universe's center of balance would not coincide with its spatial center. Since this is the point towards which things fall, the Earth must have a counter-balance of the same mass or the universe would be flung apart. This problem led Philolaus to develop the idea of a Counter-Earth or Antichthon.
Lilith is the name given to a hypothetical second moon of Earth, about the same mass as the Earth's Moon, proposed by astrologer Walter Gornold (Sepharial) in 1918. Gornold took the name Lilith from medieval Jewish legend, where she is described as the first wife of Adam.[11] Gornold claimed that Lilith was the same second moon that scientist Georg Waltemath claimed to have discovered at the turn of the century.[12][13] Gornold also claimed to have seen Waltemath's moon and opined that it was dark enough to have escaped visual detection.[14] However, Georg Waltemath's proposed natural satellites had already been discredited by two Austrian Astronomers at the turn of the century.
In 1898, Hamburg scientist Dr. Georg Waltemath announced he had located a second moon[15] inside a system of tiny moons orbiting the Earth.[16] However, after the failure of a corroborating observation of this invisible moon by the scientific community, the idea of a second moon was discredited. In 1918, astrologer Walter Gornold, also known as Sepharial, claimed to have confirmed the existence of a second moon. He named it Lilith and believed it to be the same moon Waltemath claimed to have observed. Sepharial affirmed that Lilith was indeed invisible for most of the time but claimed to have viewed it as it crossed the Sun.[14] The majority of scientists object to these theories, pointing out that any second moon of the Earth would have been seen by now.[17] There are many readily apparent holes in the arguments supporting Lilith's existence, and the existence of this astronomical object is believed only by fringe groups.
In present-day astrology, the name Lilith is usually given to a point on the horoscope that represents the direction of the actual moon's apogee, unrelated to the hypothetical second moon. When considered as a point, this Lilith is sometimes defined as the second focus of the ellipse described by the Moon's orbit; the earth is the first focus, and the apogee lies in the same direction. It takes 8 years and 10 months to complete its circuit around the zodiac.[18]
An extrasolar planet in a trinary star system believed by the followers of the Nuwaubian doctrine espoused by self-described contactee Dwight York to have been the homeworld of the Annunaki Eloheem.
Project Serpo is the name of an alleged top-secret exchange program between the United States government and an alien planet called Serpo. Details of the alleged exchange program have appeared in several UFO conspiracy stories, including one incident in 1983 in which a man identifying himself as USAF Sergeant Richard C. Doty contacted investigative journalist Linda Moulton Howe claiming to be able to supply her Air Force records of the exchange for her HBO documentary The ET Factor only to pull out without providing any evidence to substantiate his story, and one incident in 2005 when a series of emails were sent to a UFO discussion group run by Victor Martinez claiming that the project was real.[19] Some variations on the conspiracy story state that the name Serpo is the nickname of the extrasolar planet.[19] Other versions state that it is a mispronunciation of either Serponia or Seinu by US authorities involved in the project.
The first mention of a 'Project Serpo' was in a UFO email list maintained by enthusiast Victor Martinez. Various versions of the conspiracy theory circulated, and were later detailed on www.serpo.org. According to the most common version of the story, an alien survived a crash near Roswell in the later 1940s (see Roswell UFO incident). This alien was detained but treated well by American military forces, contacted its home planet and eventually repatriated. The story continues by claiming that this led to the establishment of some sort of relationship between the American government and the people of its home world – said to be a planet of the binary star system Zeta Reticuli.[19]
Zeta Reticuli has a history in ufology (including the Betty and Barney Hill abduction and the Bob Lazar story), having been claimed as the home system of an alien race called the Greys.
The story finally claims that twelve American military personnel visited the planet between 1965 and 1978 and that all of the party have since died, from 'after effects of high radiation levels from the two suns'.[19]
One criticism of Project Serpo stems from the lack of veracity of one of its alleged witnesses, Sergeant Richard Doty. Doty has been involved in other alleged UFO-related activities (see Majestic 12 and Paul Bennewitz), and thus is a discredited source.[19] Additionally, there is no physical evidence supporting the project's existence.[19] According to Tim Swartz of Mysteries Magazine, Doty, who promised evidence to Moulton Howe before backing out, has been involved in circulating several other UFO conspiracy stories.[19] Swartz also expressed that the details of Project Serpo have varied considerably with different accounts.[19] It has been alleged that the entire series of posts were designed to be viral marketing for a new book by Doty.[20]
Further criticisms of the story include the usual arguments against conspiracy theories, UFOs, and faster-than-light travel, as well as astronomical knowledge of the Zeta Reticuli system. There is currently no evidence of technological life in the system and also no evidence of planets. Because the stars are widely separated (several thousand astronomical units), claims of excess radiation as a result of the presence of a second star are nonsensical. On a more fundamental level, it is entirely possible that the messages originating the story were deliberate hoaxes. The postings were to Internet forums that cover conspiracy theories and UFOs, and a cursory examination of such forums shows that hoaxes are not uncommon. Some ufologists have even claimed that the messages were a hoax perpetrated by the American military and intelligence communities as a cover for real secret programs.
Bill Ryan, a chief proponent of publicizing the Project Serpo claims, announced on March 5, 2007 that he was stepping down from his role as webmaster for the Serpo material. Ryan nevertheless maintains his belief that an extraterrestrial exchange program did occur - although he states that the Serpo releases definitely contained disinformation.[21]
Ummo or Ummoism [22] describes a series of decades-long claims that aliens from the planet Ummo were communicating with persons on the Earth. Most Ummo information was in the form of many detailed documents and letters sent to various esoteric groups or UFO enthusiasts. The Ummo affair was subject to much mainstream attention in France and Spain during the 1960s through the 1970s, and a degree of interest remains regarding the subject. General consensus is that the Ummoism was an elaborate hoax. The culprit (or culprits) is unknown, but a José Luis Jordán Peña has claimed responsibility for instigating Ummoism.[23] However, there are still a few small groups of devotees, such as "a strange Bolivian cult called the Daughters of Ummo".[24]
Dr. Jacques Vallée has said that the Ummo documents might be a real-world analogue of the fictional creators of Borges' "Tlön, Uqbar, Orbis Tertius".[25] Historian Mike Dash writes that Ummoism began on February 6, 1966, in Madrid. On that day, Jordán Peña claimed to have had a close encounter of the first kind when he saw "an enormous circular object with three legs and, on its underside, a curious symbol: three vertical lines joined by a horizontal bar. The two exterior lines curved outward at the edges, which made the pictogram resemble the alchemical sign for the planet Uranus." (Dash, 299)
Peña's report generated a fair amount of excitement, but it was only the beginning. Not long afterwards, a Madrid author of a UFO book received several photographs in an anonymous mailing. The photos were of a craft similar to the one reported by Peña, and bearing the same symbol. Within a few weeks, "a leading Spanish contactee named Fernando Sesma Manzano became involved when he began receiving lengthy, typewritten documents which purported to come from a spacefaring race called the Ummites." (Dash, 299) Within the year, various persons (mostly in Madrid) received about 150 Ummite documents, totaling over 1000 pages. Every page of Ummite documents was stamped with the same symbol of three linked lines. New Ummite documents would continue surfacing for many subsequent years. Many others have received Ummo letters, including French scientist Jean-Pierre Petit, a researcher at the CNRS.
In June 2002, a scientist with the pseudonym Jean Pollion released, in French, his book Ummo, de vrais extraterrestres, or, Ummo, real extraterrestrials in which he analyses the "Ummite" thoughts and language. He shows that the Ummo language is different from any other language we know in that it is a "functional" language. One of the astonishing properties of this language, according to the author, is that it works without a dictionary. One must only know 18 symbols, that Pollion has named "soncepts", which if combined make up a functional description of the thing or situation that the creator of the "word" is trying to convey. Currently, more than 1300 pages of those letters have been registered, but it is possible that many other letters exist. In a 1988 letter, reference is made to the existence of 3850 pages, copies of which having been sent to several individuals, represent perhaps up to 160,000 pages of total Ummo documents. The true identity of the authors of those reports remains unknown.
Dash notes that "few ufologists outside Spain took the Ummoism seriously—the photographic evidence was highly suspect, and, while the Ummite letters were more sophisticated than most contactee communication, there was nothing in them that could not have originated on Earth." Still, Dash allows that, whatever their origins, "considerable effort had gone into the supposed hoax." (Dash, 299)
Many scientific subjects are described in detail in the letters, including network theory (or graph theory), astrophysics, cosmology, the unified field theory, biology, and evolution. Some of this information is thought to be dubious pseudoscience, but much of it is scientifically accurate. However, Jerome Clark (Clark, 1993) notes that Dr. Jacques Vallée argued that the scientific content of the Ummo letters was knowledgeable but unremarkable, and compared the scientific references to a well-researched science fiction novel—plausible in the 1960s, but dated by the standards of the 1990s. Controversy sparked about one particular assertion the Ummites made. In 1965, they wrote they were coming from a planet orbiting Wolf 424, adding this star is at 3.68502 light-year of the Sun. This was coherent with the estimation made by astronomers in 1938, but after some additional measurement, this distance was re-estimated at 14.3 light year. Fernando Sesma asked then the Ummites about this apparent mistake. The Ummites replied in another letter the same year that the difference between the number given in the precedent letter and the latest measurement was caused by fluctuations in the fabric of spacetime.[26]
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