Conspiracy: Earth

Nick looked back and before he could stop himself he was telling Steve about his current interest.  

"Right now I am reading some really cool stuff about a supposed twelfth planet called Nibiru."  

Steve's eyes narrowed the tiniest bit; his look slightly skeptical yet interested all the same so Nick continued "Yeah, it's this planet that has a long elliptical orbit that brings it in close proximity to Earth every thirty six hundred years. There are theories that it is because of Nibiru that there is even a planet Earth in the first place." 

Steve's raised eyebrows told Nick that there was more explanation needed so he pressed on. 

"It's theorized that eons ago, when Nibiru was coming through this quadrant of space, it collided with what is now Mars. From that collision a piece broke off and assumed the orbit that became our beloved planet Earth and also formed the asteroid belt." 

"Wow, that's quite a theory" Steve offered. 

"Its inhabitants, the Annunaki, are supposed to be way more advanced than we are. There are some theories around that when ancient man spoke and wrote of gods, it is the Annunaki they were referring to. It's really interesting stuff and goes in depth and shows early pictograms displaying men in flying machines and stuff like that" said Nick, his voice alive with excitement. 

Silence followed for moment while Steve digested what he had heard.  

"Who came up with this theory? I have never heard anything like it before" Steve questioned 

"It's all in these books written by a guy named Zecharia Sitchin. He translates ancient Sumerian texts and this is what he gleans from them." Nick said pointing a finger at his groaning bookshelves to punctuate his point. 

Steve nodded his head again but remained silent so Nick pressed on. 

"It gets complicated and difficult to follow at some points, but Sitchin ties everything together with the Mayan calendar, which is amazingly accurate to this day. Only it stops at December 21, 2012 and nobody can figure out why. According to his calculations that's around the next time that Nibiru will be approaching Earth" and then took another sip of his drink as he eyed Steve closely, trying to gauge his reaction to what he just heard.  

Steve screwed up his face as he thought.  

"I have heard of the Mayan calendar before. So if his theory is right then this twelfth planet will be back in our neck of the woods soon" Steve said, almost robot like as he performed the calculation in his head 

"That would be about right" Nick agreed "Many people think the whole thing is the prelude to some sort of apocalypse, either by war or alien invasion or something equally sinister. Others still think that the planet's close proximity to Earth will cause a pole shift due to the gravitational effect of such a large body being so close to Earth" he finished. 

"And what do you think?" 

Nick reflected momentarily. "I can't deny it's a way out there idea and without actually seeing it, it's hard to imagine another planet such as this but at the same time I think there are many mysteries in the universe. Mankind is just scratching the surface of what could be out there." 

"Good point" said Steve and after a brief pause offered "If it does exist though, wouldn't the government have told us?" 

Nick gaped at Steve for a moment in disbelief "Well, government transparency issues aside, I think it was in 1992 NASA issued a press release that talked about mysterious deviations in the orbits of Uranus and Neptune which would be explainable by the gravitational effect of an unknown large planet."