Big Picture Science for November 13, 2017 - Skeptic Check: Nibiru! (Again!)

Big Picture Science - Skeptic Check: Nibiru! (Again!)

Will your calendar entry for November 19th  be your last? Some people say yes, predicting a catastrophic collision between Earth and planet Nibiru on that date and the end of the world.  But it won’t happen, because this hypothesized rogue world doesn’t exist. Nibiru’s malevolent disruptions have been foretold many times, most dramatically in 2012 and three times so far in 2017.  But this year NASA issued a rare public assurance that doomsday was not in the offing.

Find out why the agency decided to speak out. Meanwhile, hoaxes and alarmist stories from the 19th century demonstrate that we have a long history of being susceptible to hooey.

Also, an astronomer who doesn’t believe that Nibiru is hiding in the outer Solar System, but that Planet X is.

Guests:

• David Morrison – Astronomer and space scientist, NASA Ames Research Center
• Robert E. Bartholomew – Medical sociologist at Botany College, Auckland, New Zealand, and author of “A Colorful History of Popular Delusions”
• Michael Brown – Astronomer at the California Institute of Technology

Download podcast at - http://bigpicturescience.org/episodes/skeptic-check-nibiru-again

You can listen to this and other episodes at http://bigpicturescience.org/, and be sure to check out Blog Picture Science, the companion blog to the radio show.