Oh, lordy... could Nibiru be real after all?

Good grief.

According to a paper submitted to the astronomy journal Icarus, our Sun may have a dark companion.

Physicists John Matese and Daniel Whitmire at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette are convinced that cometary deflections and distribution show that there must be a large planet bigger than Jupiter hiding in the Oort Cloud. Matese has been publishing papers on this for decades, and while astronomers aren't completely convinced by his arguments, this latest paper bolsters the probability that there's something big beyond Pluto.

Originally, the premise was that this large companion to our Sun was called Nemesis, but the contactee and ancient astronaut proponents have adopted Nibiru as the name of the rogue planet. If it's only Jupiter-sized, it would barely qualify as a brown dwarf, since those usually are at least ten times the mass of gas giant planets. The only difference is that brown dwarf stars have some degree of fusion going on inside them; Jupiter, Saturn and Neptune radiate more heat than they get from the Sun, but haven't "turned on."

Even if there is a large massive object in the Oort Cloud of comets, it would not be visible to earthbound observers, despite what Nibiru buffs would have you believe. Also, this object would not zip around the Solar System playing billiards with planets a la Velikovsky or Zecharia Sitchin zetatalkers.

The real importance of this paper is that it adds support to the contention that most stars will have planetary systems, bolstering belief that planets are the norm in the universe. And more planets = more possibility of extraterrestrial life.

The Icarus article is viewable at: http://url.ie/5yck