Nibiru is a supposed planet that some groups believe will cause a disastrous encounter with Earth in the early 21st century. Believers in this doomsday event usually refer to this object as Nibiru or Planet X. However, astronomers reject the idea of Nibiru and have made efforts to inform the public that there is no threat to Earth. They point out that such an object so close to Earth would be easily visible to the naked eye and would cause noticeable effects in the orbits of the outer planets. Most photographs purporting to show "Nibiru" beside the Sun are lens flares, false images of the Sun caused by reflections within the lens. Claims that the object has been concealed behind the Sun are untenable.
The origins of the Nibiru myth began in 1976 when Zecharia Sitchin wrote "The Twelfth Planet," a book which used Stitchins own unique translation of Sumerian cuneiform to identify a planet, Nibiru, orbiting the sun every 3,600 years. Several years later, Nancy Lieder, a self-described psychic, announced that the aliens she claimed to channel had warned her this planet would collide with Earth in 2003. However, this prediction did not come true.
In reality, Nibiru is a nonexistent planet. It has been linked to NASA by various bloggers, but space agency officials put out a statement saying that no big planet was coming to destroy Earth in 2012. There is debate in the scientific community about whether a hypothetical planet, nicknamed "Planet Nine" or "Planet X," exists in the far outer solar system. However, this is not the same as Nibiru.
In popular culture, Nibiru has been referenced in films such as Star Trek Into Darkness and Melancholia. It was also a long-running story arc in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated.
