# The End, Planet X and 2012? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [September 22, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738 "2008-09-22T20:32:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![mlees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba8739/32.png) [@mlees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mlees)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/21 "2008-09-22T21:35:32Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Be that as it may, I’ve still got spaceship tickets available for anyone interested. PM me to see if you’re elegible for the “Quality Human Being” discount! Hmmm. What is the male to female ratio going to be on your space ship? ---
**Author:** ![Nars\_Glinley](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/nars_glinley/32/8177_2.png) [@Nars\_Glinley](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nars_Glinley)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/22 "2008-09-22T21:36:02Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > The **Bad Astronomer** (I think) did this for us. IIRC if Planet-X was due to arrive in 2012 it’d be inside the orbit of Jupiter by now and apart from the sun and moon would likely be the brightest object in the sky. In short, it’d be visible now without the aid of a telescope. > > He also mentioned (again IIRC) that its gravitational effects would be very apparent to astronomers and noticeably perturb the orbits of the planets in our solar system. Not enough to screw anything up but more than enough for the guys who measure such things (and they do so regularly) to detect. > > So sorry…no Planet-X although if there was one then yeah…it’d be very bad for us. That’s what they want you to think. I never know who “they” are. ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/23 "2008-09-22T21:38:15Z")
> [@dropzone](#): > > But immediately before your post was one by **begbert2** , who is also a “guest” and we’ve been trying to get rid of him for five years. 😉 Funny, I was tempted to reply to him and ask in insulted tones whether my reacquired quest status caused him to doubt the credibility of my otherwise _clearly_ factually-accurate post above his. And you can’t drive me away! I stand strong and resiliant against all comers! (Except space rodents. They give me the willies.) ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/24 "2008-09-22T21:45:52Z")
> [@Happy\_Lendervedder](#): > > Be that as it may, I’ve still got spaceship tickets available for anyone interested. PM me to see if you’re elegible for the “Quality Human Being” discount! 😛 There’s no room for **humans** on the Escape Saucers! Only [SubGeniuses](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subgenius)! ---
**Author:** ![Lobohan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lobohan/32/79_2.png) [@Lobohan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lobohan)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/25 "2008-09-22T21:51:48Z")
I have obtained a secret video that \*\*\*they \*\*\*don’t want you to see. It shows how our civilization will be devastated by planet x. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/LhAobPugvsk/hqdefault.jpg "Thundarr the Barbarian TV cartoon intro (1980)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk) ---
**Author:** ![Marley23](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Marley23](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marley23)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/26 "2008-09-22T22:05:03Z")
What’s “this?” Terrorism? The craziness in the stock market? How would a non-existent rogue planet effect any of that? ---
**Author:** ![El\_Kabong](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/el_kabong/32/496_2.png) [@El\_Kabong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/El_Kabong)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/27 "2008-09-22T22:13:40Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#): > > Surprised you have missed this one. Sorry, haven’t really kept up on my rogue planets of late. Thanks to you and **xtisme** for the info. Jeez, rode out a hurricane last week, and now this. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/28 "2008-09-22T22:27:58Z")
I will bet $10,000 that all life on Earth will not be wiped out in 2012 with anyone who cares to take me up on it. Any takers? C’mon, put your money where your mouth is, people. ---
**Author:** ![Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e47c2d/32.png) [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Biffy_the_Elephant_Shrew)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/29 "2008-09-22T22:29:02Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > On the contrary, this has _everything_ to do with wild rabid pygmy chipmunks. They run planet X, you see. They fly it around. Like a spaceship. It’s only the size of West Virginia, but _very_ dense, you see. You know too much, human. Expect a visit from one of our attack-bunnies shortly. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/30 "2008-09-22T22:32:00Z")
> [@begbert2](#): > > (Except space rodents. They give me the willies.) Why would you want **anyone** ’s willy, even from a creature as fabulous as a space rodent? ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/31 "2008-09-22T22:34:49Z")
> [@Lobohan](#): > > I have obtained a secret video that \*\*\*they \*\*\*don’t want you to see. It shows how our civilization will be devastated by planet x. > > [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LhAobPugvsk) Cool! A cartoon version of Norman Spinrad’s THE IRON DREAM! ---
**Author:** ![begbert2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/begbert2/32/3357_2.png) [@begbert2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/begbert2)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/32 "2008-09-22T22:36:16Z")
> [@Anne\_Neville](#): > > I will bet $10,000 that all life on Earth will not be wiped out in 2012 with anyone who cares to take me up on it. Any takers? C’mon, put your money where your mouth is, people. Given that the only time you’d have to pay out is if everybody’s already dead, I’m not seeing the appeal to the other side. > [@Biffy\_the\_Elephant\_Shrew](#): > > You know too much, human. Expect a visit from one of our attack-bunnies shortly. AAAAAAUGH! Run away! (And **Cervaise** , that’s just _wrong_.) ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/33 "2008-09-22T22:41:21Z")
Btw, we forestalled the 2012-Planet X disaster by invading Iraq. You see, in 2012, the cycles would have been right for Saddam Hussein to open the ancient Sumerian Stargate and usher the Annunaki in. His dream was that they would exalt him as their vice-regent as they established their reign. The interdimensional realm they inhabit is Nibiru, not a physical planet in this dimension. Fortunately, we deposed Saddam & are on our own search for the Stargate to hopefully destroy it. But Barack HUSSEIN Obama wants to be President- and have the Stargate for his own nefarious purposes. Fortunately, uber-war-hero John McCain is here to stop him. His qualification- having converted a Reptilian Princess to the side of humanity & taken her as his wife! _This post inspired by numerous eps of Coast to Coast AM, but the Obama-McCain twist is my own! bows Thank you!_ ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2008, 10:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/34 "2008-09-22T22:44:16Z")
\*\*\*It’s the end of the world as we know it. And I feel fine.\*\*\* 🙂 The 2012 year is referring to the long count in the Maya Calendar: > **[Mayan prophecy - 12/21/2012 - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com](https://skepdic.com/maya.html)** > [@](#): > > The world will not end on 12-21-2012, at least not according to the Mayans, who knew about as much about our planet’s future demise as Gordon-Michael Scallion, St. Malachy, Edgar Cayce, Zecharia Sitchin,or Nostradamus, namely, nothing. The Mayans had zero, zilch, nada, mix bá’al to say about the hoax planet Nibiru. > > Mayan urban culture, known as the Classic Period, flourished from about 300 A.D. until around 900 A.D. in Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula and parts of Central America. During this period the Maya built temples and monuments, created numerous works of art and writings, continued their astronomical observations, and built a network of cities. These cities lay buried under jungle growth for centuries. One of the important discoveries from these ruins is that the Maya had several calendars. One is known as the Long Count calendar, which is reset to day 0 every 1,872,000 days, a period known as The Great Circle (Diamond 2005: 167). The next reset date, by some calculations, is December 21, 2012. Obviously, this calendar is of no interest to the Maya any longer, since their civilization collapsed over a thousand years ago. (Though there are people today who are the descendants of the Maya and the Mayan culture lives on through them._) Nevertheless, this date is of enormous interest to certain doomsday prophets and New Age astrologers, such as John Calleman, who are spreading the good news either that the Maya knew the date when the world would end or they knew the date when a New Age of Transformation would begin._ (The Mayan glyphs and hieroglyphs aren’t crystal clear about what the calendar means.) Too bad they couldn’t predict their own collapse. > > According to Jared Diamond, > > ``` > The famous Maya Long Count calendar begins on August 11, 3114 B.C.--just as our own calendar begins on January 1 of the first year of the Christian era....Presumably, the Maya...attached some significance to their own day zero, but we don't know what it was. (Diamond 2005: 167) > > ``` > > There was no writing in the New World until 2,500 years after the Mayan year zero but there is evidence of agriculture in Mesoamerica from about the time of day zero on the Mayan calendar. This could be just a coincidence, since the areas where agriculture first emerged were not the areas where the Maya would eventually build their cities. > > The Mayan Long Count calendar is based on a complex system of units ranging from days (kin) to 144,000 days (baktun). > > Whatever virtues the Classic Mayan culture might have had, predicting the future seems an unlikely one. ---
**Author:** ![42fish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/4/b487fb/32.png) [@42fish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/42fish)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/35 "2008-09-23T00:22:13Z")
> [@Pinzone](#): > > Could this of the world’s upheavals be preface for The End/Begining, when some are predicting that we’ll be buzzed by Planet X, and things will turn upside down, destroying most, if not all life on Earth? Of course not. The Large Hadron Collider will have created a black hole that will suck us into oblivion years before Planet X arrives. Doncha feel better now? ---
**Author:** ![Der\_Trihs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/der_trihs/32/233_2.png) [@Der\_Trihs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Der_Trihs)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/36 "2008-09-23T00:34:40Z")
> [@42fish](#): > > Of course not. The Large Hadron Collider will have created a black hole that will suck us into oblivion years before Planet X arrives. Doncha feel better now? No, no, that was only a cover story to prevent panic over the approach of Planet X. In reality, the LHC was designed to produce black holes and\*\* fire them at Planet X\*\*. ---
**Author:** ![Anne\_Neville](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Anne\_Neville](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Anne_Neville)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/37 "2008-09-23T00:39:04Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > \*\*\*It’s the end of the world as we know it. > > And I feel fine.\*\*\* 🙂 > The 2012 year is referring to the long count in the Maya Calendar: > > [Mayan prophecy - 12/21/2012 - The Skeptic's Dictionary - Skepdic.com](http://skepdic.com/maya.html) Did the Maya calendar predict either the Classic Maya collapse, or the coming of the Spanish (which killed a lot of Maya from smallpox and other diseases)? ---
**Author:** ![Kythereia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e8c25b/32.png) [@Kythereia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kythereia)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/38 "2008-09-23T00:45:13Z")
> [@xtisme](#): > > It was, of course, wrong…and has been disproven long ago (I think Cecil did an article on this a long time ago but may be misremembering…not worth my while to do a search :)) [Here you go](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/1145/whatever-happened-to-planet-x)! It’s why I was so confused on reading the title (“wait, didn’t Planet X turn out to be Pluto or something? I know they must be pissed at being downgraded to a dwarf planet, but come on…”) ---
**Author:** ![MEBuckner](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mebuckner/32/2896_2.png) [@MEBuckner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MEBuckner)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/39 "2008-09-23T00:50:23Z")
> [@Der\_Trihs](#): > > No, no, that was only a cover story to prevent panic over the approach of Planet X. In reality, the LHC was designed to produce black holes and\*\* fire them at Planet X\*\*. Uh-oh. [“Large Hadron Collider down for 2 months”](http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/science/09/20/hadron.collider.damage.ap/index.html). _Will the intrepid and only slightly mad scientists at CERN get the LHC back on line in time to blast Planet X into a singularity before it gets close enough for tidal effects to wreck Planet Earth and/or close enough to be spotted by the naked eye, triggering MASS PANIC and the End of Civilization?!? Tune in tomorrow!!!_ ---
**Author:** ![XT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/xt/32/456_2.png) [@XT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/XT)\ **Post date:** [September 23, 2008, 12:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738/40 "2008-09-23T00:51:21Z")
[QUOTE=Der Trihs] No, no, that was only a cover story to prevent panic over the approach of Planet X. In reality, the LHC was designed to produce black holes and fire them at Planet X. [/QUOTE] Hm…interesting. I thought the LHC was designed to either destroy the world (for fun and profit) or as a weapon against ravaging mole-rats from Venus. I didn’t realize it could be used to fire black holes at Planet X to. Man, did the Euro’s get a LOT of bang for their buck with this one! Wish we had built it… [QUOTE=Kythereia] Here you go! It’s why I was so confused on reading the title (“wait, didn’t Planet X turn out to be Pluto or something? I know they must be pissed at being downgraded to a dwarf planet, but come on…”) [/QUOTE] Ah, my thanks! I thought there was an article on The Master on this subject but it had been a long time since I read The Book (well, one of them anyway). -XT [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-end-planet-x-and-2012/464738.md?page=3)