Scientists may be coming around to the idea that a direct detection of Planet X is just too difficult right now.  It's been over three years since the publication of compelling indirect evidence for this body, re-branded as 'Planet Nine' (1).  Since that time, I've reported upon the many attempts to both constrain the position of this object, and to ultimately directly observe it in either visible or infra-red light. 

Image Credit: ESO

Long before Planet Nine had even seen the light of day, I was already contemplating why such a body had yet to be detected, despite all of the amassing evidence for its presence in the outer solar system.  In early 2015, I came to the conclusion that it was essentially hidden from view - not by any weird alien technology, but simply by a localised dust cloud, or mini-nebula.  This seemingly prosaic notion was based upon a logical argument: Planet X resides beyond the heliosphere, essentially in interstellar space.  Dust-removal mechanisms out there are different to those within the heliospheric solar system.  So, different rules apply, and for whatever reason that hasn't been taken into account in current modelling - particularly regarding large rogue planets.  I called this idea the 'Shroud Hypothesis' (2).

Image Credit: ESO

This network is only being considered at the moment, but a similar network was used with varying degrees of success to precisely determine the position of the Kuiper belt object 2014 MU69 (known as 'Ultima Thule') prior to the New Horizon's flyby earlier this year. 

"...much of the binary's orbital momentum must have dissipated for the objects to come together, but scientists don't yet know whether that was due to aerodynamic forces from gas in the ancient solar nebula, or if Ultima and Thule ejected other lobes that formed with them to dissipate energy and shrink their orbit.." (7)

If the flyby of Ultima Thule is raising questions about the environment immediately beyond Pluto, then I wonder how unexpected the interstellar environment will turn out to be beyond the heliosphere?)

Three years on from the Planet Nine announcement, hopes may be slowly fading among those hunting Planet X.  However, as with all worthwhile endeavours, it is essential to persevere.  After all, generations of astronomers have been seeking Planet X for well over 100 years.  If it comes to fruition, the new method of occultation monitoring may offer hope that the Occult Planet will one day be found.

iopscience.iop.org article

The Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa visited the asteroid 25143 Itokawa in 2005, and amazingly brought back samples to Earth for analysis.  Itokawa's orbit around the sun crosses those of both Earth and Mars, making it a long-term denizen of the inner solar system. Its curious, varied terrain and lack of impact craters indicate it is a rubble pile asteroid, cobbled together from one original localised swarm of rocks, or two or more following a collision.  It should be dry, but the analysis of the returned minerals has revealed that this is not the case, despite those same minerals generally being anhydrous in nature. 

Image Credit: NASA/JPL

Moreover, the isotopic composition of the asteroid's water is the same as Earth's:

"Water is made from hydrogen and oxygen. But those elements occur as different isotopes – meaning they can have a different number of neutrons in their atomic nucleus (neutrons are particles that make up the nucleus together with protons). The researchers looked at the hydrogen isotopic composition of the water and discovered it was very close to that of Earth, suggesting the water on Earth has the same source as that of the Hayabusa grains." (1)

There are potential implications for theories relating to the origin of water on Earth, which seems overly abundant given its proximity to the Sun: Because it lies within the 'snowline', the early Earth should have lost much of its water to space during its formation. That, of course, should be the same for Near Earth Objects, like Itokawa.  More so, actually.  So, if this asteroid managed to hold onto water (2), then it seems reasonable to suppose that whatever mechanisms are at work there are true to the materials which eventually aggregated to form the Earth.  Additionally, the hypothesis that it was asteroids, not comets, that delivered further tranches of wetness is bolstered by this finding.

This would also seem to help with the equally puzzling anomaly about Mars.  its scant atmosphere is inadequate to support liquid water on its surface.  Yet there is plenty of evidence emerging to suggest that water has flowed across the Martian surface in the past (and, potentially not that long ago).  I cover plenty of this subject in my book 'Darker Stars' (3).   Dry Earth and Wet Mars seem like adjacent babies on a maternity ward swapped at birth. Move them in either direction, and things get a lot more sensible.  If Earth had started out nearer, or beyond, the snowline, then its relative abundance of water makes a whole bunch of sense.  Astrophysicists don't seem keen on this possibility - it doesn't fit well with the currently accepted paradigm of the Nice model.

The likelihood that water is retained within the inner solar systems by all bodies certainly helps, but doesn't really explain the apparent existence of liquid water on the Martian surface (4).  That calls for a much thicker atmosphere in the past, and more clement conditions generally.  Again, move Mars inwards at some point in the past, and that situation improves.  Mars' orbit is, after all, rather haphazard.  Perhaps we don't know the half of it.  The tableau we are presented with here may also be more readily explained by the intervention of another significant body, shaping and possibly re-shaping the inner solar system.  Good old Planet X, of course.  Again, not really on astrophysicists' agendas.

There were many sides to the Planet X author Zecharia Sitchin.  His fascinating alternative theories about Nibiru and the Anunnaki have often been derided as pseudoscience.  They are, of course, simply one man's interpretation of ancient textual writings.  What is often forgotten in the many efforts to debunk Sitchin's work is his scholarly capability.  He had been a journalist for many years and, like many of his peers, delved deeply into subjects that he was not necessarily an accredited expert on.  He was also a man of some influence.

The Jerusalem Post reports that a rare document is now available to buy, which has emerged from the late Zecharia Sitchin's estate.  Sitchin had noted that historic U.S. documents recognising the State of Israel had never actually been signed by the then-President Harry Truman.  Truman had only ever signed a draft copy on 14th May 1948, which had included hand-written annotations.  In 1965, Sitchin was president of the New York chapter of Hadassah and director of the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and met with Truman.  He took the opportunity to literally put the record straight:

"“During a meeting with president Truman at the Library, I discussed with him the regretful fact of the absence of a signed Document of Recognition,” Sitchin wrote in a 1987 letter to the Israeli Embassy in Washington. “On his instructions a photocopy was made of the clean, final statement and he signed it then and there. This signed Document of Recognition – the only one in existence – was then displayed in the [World’s Fair] Pavilion and has remained in my possession.”" (1)

The unsigned 1948 document may have had some context.  In a 'secret' diary unearthed in the President's library in 2003, entries made by President Truman on 21st July 1947 were critical of the attitudes of Jews as 'displaced persons' (2), leading to accusations against Truman of anti-Semitism (3). 

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Darker Stars

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Darker Stars