Actually, the proof that it's sheer nonsense is simple:
Archaeologists agree that the only planets the Sumerians knew about were the ones visible to the naked eye: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn.
www.ramtops.demon.co.uk...
But the BEST page about this is on BADASTRONOMY.COM. Phil says:
Introduction
Doomsayers seem to pop up every few years. Last time, it was the alignment of the planets that somehow managed not to destroy the Earth in May 2000.
Now, we have Planet X. A few people are claiming that a heretofore unknown planet in our solar system is on a very long, elliptical orbit. In May
2003, it will pass close enough to the Earth to affect it in some way, causing it to flip over (what many call a "pole shift") and spur many other
huge disasters. The end result will be the deaths of many billions of people. There are a large number of web pages, chat rooms and books about Planet
X and its horrible affects on the Earth. So the question is, does this planet exist, and will it come by in May 2003 and cause all this horror?
No, and no.
As much as I know anything in science, I know that there is no Planet X as described by this latest crop of Chicken Littles.
www.badastronomy.com...
To summarize a few of his points:
1) This is supposed to be a "brown dwarf" star. These things are stars and they do glow brightly enough to be seen by some of our telescopes. If
there was a brown dwarf ANYwhere near our solar system, it would be the second or third brightest object in our solar system... a little dimmer than
the moon.
This isn't something that could be missed by your average stargazer... or even Joe Dunce of Whappahappahoola. Heck, as bad as my eyes are, I could
spot the thing at night without my glasses. You could see it in the daytime.
2) If you use the goodole Kepler formulas (or any formula for orbital velocity and periodicity, you'll find that in order to make the predictions
come true about the planet being close to Earth in 2003, that by now it would have to be inside the solar system, somewhere between Neptune and
Jupiter.
(here's the math page on it:
www.badastronomy.com... )
Now, that's big enough and close enough that you could spot the thing with the naked eye. Amateur astronomy is a popular hobby.
Howcome no amateur astronomer ANYwhere has started yelling, "HEY!!! GREATBIGHORKIN' PLANET OUT THERE BETWEEN JUPITER AND NEPTUNE!!!" The
things' bigger that Jupiter's moons... and we can see those easily with binoculars and telescopes (even cheap ones.)
They have found minor objects 1/3 the size of Pluto in orbit BEYOND Pluto. No planet X, though.
(check out "Ask The Astronomer":
itss.raytheon.com...
...and on and on.
In short, if the thing really did exist and even if there was a HUGE coverup... by now every person on the Earth with vision better than 20/1000
(uncorrected) would be able to SEE the thing.
Day OR night.
The "planet-sized invisibility field" won't work... we'd see gravitational distortion of light around the planet as well as some other phenomina
rather easily spotted by the average person.