Dark  Star: The Planet  X Evidence

By Andy Lloyd


Commentary and review by Rob Solàrion (Abridged),  2005

 

During the preparation of Osiris, Isis & Planet X, I had the good fortune and opportunity to read a new book titled Dark Star: The Planet X Evidence by Andy Lloyd (2005, Santa Barbara, California).  This is a 328-page book with illustrations and index.  It has a cover price of US $21.95 and is available through Amazon.com and other booksellers.

Andy and I have been acquainted over the Internet for several years, and both of us were interviewed by Hollywood film-producer Robert Sepehr for the second of his Planet X Videos.  Andy and I have agreed to disagree on certain matters pertaining to Planet X for reasons which will become apparent in this review of his book.

Andy presents his arguments in a logical and efficient manner, starting with the simpler anomalies of our Solar System and then gradually working into more complex discussions of Dwarf Stars in general and Planet X in particular.  By Chapter 12, Andy has actually overly complicated his theory, in my opinion; but he has certainly covered all the bases, to use an American baseball metaphor.  For a couple of hundred pages, Andy speculates and theorizes about one aspect of Planet X or another; and I think that he would agree with me that we are basically at a dead-end in terms of purely "theoretical" analyses.  What we need now is actual physical proof of Planet X, either its telescopic discovery or its sudden passage through the "mainstream" Solar System.

Most researchers of Planet X Nibiru, myself included, tend to follow the postulation by Zecharia Sitchin in The Earth Chronicles, notably The Twelfth Planet, that this "tenth" or "unknown" planet is approximately the size of Uranus and Neptune, or about 4-5 times larger than the Planet Earth, and therefore that it is merely an as yet "undiscovered" planet within our Solar System.  Andy, by contrast, equates Planet X with a Brown Dwarf Star, a distant, unseen binary companion of our Sun several times larger than the Planet Jupiter, with a planetary system of its own.  Whereas I suggest that Planet X is accompanied by an "entourage" or "host" of planetoids and moonlets, in Andy's scenario these bodies, seven in all, orbit the Dark Star.  The innermost planet of the Dark Star, the warmest and most hospitable for life, is the Home Planet of the Anunnaki.  The planet farthest from the Dark Star is what becomes visible to peoples on Earth during the perihelial passage of the Dark Star's system, leading in turn to all of our ancient "myths" about this "perturber" or "interloper" planet.

Andy's Dark Star itself does not actually enter the boundaries of the other planets.  However, its "Seventh Moon" (Sitchin's Nibiru, or "Planet of the Crossing") does "cross over" into that part of the Solar System between Neptune and Pluto, close enough and bright enough to be visible to people on Earth, at least for such a sufficiently lengthy time that cosmic legends could be born and later develop around it. 

On page 53 Andy writes the following, and I certainly agree with him.  His thoughts are worth repeating here.

"The idea that there is a massive undiscovered planetary body orbiting the sun is almost 100 years old now.  It is certainly not a new idea, but is one whose popularity has fluctuated down the years.  At the moment, it is a possibility that is regaining a certain amount of scientific credibility.  An idea, perhaps, whose time has arrived.

"Our science and technology seems to progress at an accelerating rate, and this tends to make us all a little complacent about what remains to be discovered.  It seems common sense that any scientific endeavour lasting 100 years would have certainly reached a conclusion by now, as the means to discover the answer has improved.  Yet, many of the most important scientific questions remain unanswered: a cure for cancer; a renewable energy source; a unified field theory in physics, to name but a few.  These problems remind us that our knowledge of the cosmos, the Earth and ourselves is far from complete, and that science has much to learn.

"And so it is with our knowledge of the solar system.  Because we are looking further and further into space with larger and more technologically refined telescopes, we have a tendency to assume that everything in-between has been discovered, catalogued and understood.  This is far from the truth in reality.

"Astronomy is only as good as its ability to pick up light sources, or sources of other types of radiation, and distinguish them from other similar sources.  Our eyes, searching the heavens at night, perform the most simple form of astronomy, detecting the light from distant stars.  Yet we cannot see closer objects, including the outer planets of the solar system beyond Saturn, nor the asteroids and distant comets."

Throughout his book, Andy cites references to Dr. Carl Sagan, who was one of the bitterest philosophical enemies of Dr. Immanuel Velikovsky, I might add.  Andy wrote me in an email that he was trying to present his material as much as possible in a way to incorporate mainstream astronomical thought, and he does that well. 

On page 57 Andy remarks, "The late Carl Sagan, a popular and brilliant scientist from Cornell University [in New York, RS], described the potential for a dark sister companion orbiting the sun back in 1985.  Sagan acknowledged the speculation surrounding a proposed Nemesis 'star' orbiting the sun at a great distance.  He even proposed a fictional scenario where ancient peoples mythologized this 'Death Star' as the sun's Dark Sister.  The 'Death Star' - presumably taking it name from the equally fictitious moon-like battle station of George Lucas's Star Wars trilogy - could periodically bombard the solar system with comets, when its elliptical orbit caused it to brush through the comet clouds.  This, in turn, could create a periodic extinction cycle."

For the record, here is an original quote from Carl Sagan regarding this "Demon Sun": "There is another Sun in the sky, a Demon Sun that we cannot see.  Long ago, even before great-grandmother's time, the Demon Sun attacked our Sun.  Comets fell, and a terrible winter overtook the Earth.  Almost all life was destroyed.  The Demon Sun has attacked many times before.  It will attack again."

Chapter 4 ("Binary Companion") was particularly appealing to me.  On pages 77-78, Andy writes the following:

"In 1986, a rather diligent researcher named William Corliss published his book 'The Sun and Solar System Debris - A Catalog of Astronomical Anomalies'.  Several observed anomalies are cited which may allude to Planet X, or even a dark companion to the sun.  These anomalies remain unconfirmed, of course, but make for interesting reading nonetheless.  One of them describes an object captured by the IRAS [infrared telescope, RS] survey which sounds very much like the 'Orion' sighting, only this time it is located in the zodiacal constellation of Sagittarius, in the opposite half of the sky ...

"The article was published in 'New Scientist' on 10th November 1983, and discusses the discovery of an object in space whose temperature is 230K, which is too cool for a star, but too warm for a dust cloud.  It was spotted by the infrared space telescope in the constellation of Sagittarius, and fit the bill for an object 'several times heavier than Jupiter'.  Remarkably, British scientists at this time accused their American colleagues of keeping the information of this find to themselves.  The British scientists publicly questioned why the Americans had 'been keeping quiet about it in recent weeks'.  Speculation was rife, that the discovery was nothing but an intriguing ploy to bolster the chances of further funding from NASA for a new infrared space observatory.

"Those few weeks of silence which followed the report of a new Jupiter-sized planet in the solar system have now extended to 22 years! ... Without this article in New Scientist, no one would have known any different.  There is usually some fire behind the smoke, after all.  But, why would anyone want to shelve such an incredibly important discovery?"

Yes, indeed - unless to release details of this potentially catastrophic "interloper" would fuel worldwide panic and turmoil!

The Orion (sic) sighting mentioned above refers to the detection of a "mini-galaxy" or group of "rogue planets" in the direction of Orion in 1983.  An additional group of "rogue planets" was discovered (or rediscovered?) in Orion in the fall of 1997.  See Chapter 11 ("Rogue Planet Crossings") of my book Planet X Nibiru: Slow-Motion Doomsday.  In the Mayan legends, their "Demon Sun" is first sighted in the Constellation of Sagittarius, after which it travels along "The Black Road" to its ultimate stationary position atop "The Sacred Tree".

Then Andy continues, "In his analysis of ancient texts, Zecharia Sitchin offered a number of constellations as probable points along the path trodden by Nibiru.  These include, in order, the Great Bear (Ursa Major): Orion (along with the star Sirius); then, Taurus and Aries; before heading towards Sagittarius.  The last of these is not listed as a constellation that Nibiru visits, but rather one that it usually disappears from, in its course away from our solar system."

Ursa Major is a North Polar Constellation.  Planet X Nibiru is stationary over our North Pole as The Winged Disk atop The Cosmic Tree for a "Golden Age" of 900 Earth Years.  It seems to come and go from the direction of Sagittarius, the Center of the Galaxy, exactly opposite from the direction of Sirius, its original point of origin.  Although Sitchin did not mention The Cosmic Tree, nevertheless it is noteworthy that he included Ursa Major as a station on the path of Planet X Nibiru.

In June 2001 NASA discovered a strange "microlensing object" in the direction of Sagittarius.  This object is located between here and globular cluster M22.  It can't be seen because it is "microlensing" the light of M22 behind it.  NASA never followed up with additional information about this apparently important discovery.  Was it yet another sighting of Planet X? 

What Andy writes on page 81 sounds a bit like this "microlensing object" at M22: "It turns out that [engineer and amateur astronomer John] Bagby was interested in the work of one E.R. Harrison who, in 1977, postulated the existence of a massive nearby body, lying in Sagittarius, required to explain observational anomalies regarding a 'pulsar period time derivative'.  This sounds like a bit of a mouthful, doesn't it?  Simply put, pulsars are highly regular emitters of strong radiation.  If a gravitational field comes between a pulsar and us, as observers on Earth, then the highly specific data from the pulsar will be altered slightly.  This will allow us to imply the existence of a dark gravity field, which is what Harrison proposed in Sagittarius.  His finding may thus imply the location of the Dark Star."

Andy pursues the idea further on page 101: "We now know that many of the newly discovered 'extra-solar planets' have eccentric orbits, indicating that non-circular orbital arrangements in star systems might be fairly normal.  In at least one case, a brown dwarf has been found embedded within a 'normal' extra-solar planetary system, without its presence seeming to create chaos among the other planets.  The birth of planetary systems appears to be anything but simple.

"In relation to the Dark Star Theory, the modern understanding of these failed stars appears to offer an ideal platform to explore the concept of an inhabitable world in our comet-cloud, as described by the Sumerians.  A world orbiting a dark star that is essentially invisible to us, but that emits massive amounts of heat and enough low-frequency light to support life, whilst not subjecting the denizens of that world to the sort of harmful radiation we are subject to from our sun.

"Could this also explain the almost immortal life-spans that Sitchin claims for the Anunnaki?  One might speculate that our woefully short life-spans are due to our constant exposure to high energy particles radiated from the sun.  Astronaut 'Gods' coming to our world might find their life-spans significantly shortened, as well as the subsequent life expectancies of their children.  Life on Earth is necessarily mortal.  Perhaps the less hostile environment of a habitable moon orbiting a brown dwarf would help to extend the human life cycle."

That is a point that is very well taken, and I must admit that until I read these words by Andy, I'd never considered such a scenario for "immortality", but it makes perfect sense!  Bravo, Andy!

According to Sitchin in The Twelfth Planet, the Earth's moon named "Kingu" was previously a satellite of the proto-Earth "Tiamat", both of which were catapulted into Earth's present orbit following the "Marduk-Tiamat Celestial Battle" when one of Marduk-Nibiru's moonlets, referred to in the Enuma Elish as a "North Wind", crashed into Tiamat-Earth, creating the asteroid belt and propelling Earth to its newer and warmer orbit closer to the Sun.  It is in this context that Andy mentions Dr. Velikovsky on page 123:

"The similarity between the Earth and the Moon's rocky constituents answers those who have hypothesized that the Moon is a relatively recent companion to the Earth.  The writer Immanuel Velikovsky tried to explain various ancient myths that hinted at a previous absence of the Moon and infamously promoted the idea that the Moon had been recently captured by the Earth following a catastrophe, and that the time-scale for this event was relatively recent.  If we can take the evidence presented by NASA scientists at face value, then it seems that Velikovsky was wrong.  Yet this evidence is in accordance with Sitchin's version of events in that the Moon was formed by the cosmic collision very early on in the history of the Earth."

By way of reference, Andy cites the treatise In The Beginning by Dr. Velikovsky.  This work can be found online at the following URL:

http://www.varchive.org/itb/index.htm

This Prague-based website is maintained by archivist Jan Sammer, who was Dr. Velikovsky's personal secretary at the time of his death in November 1979. 

On page 201 we read, "When confronted by the twin problems of an astronomer burying her real conclusion within her paper, and the scientific news media subsequently reporting only half the story, one could be forgiven for wondering whether the possibility of a rogue brown dwarf companion to the sun is just a little too much for everyone's reputations to withstand.  One must wonder whether such a notion is tantamount to a modern scientific heresy."

Exactly!  They are scientists with vested interests who are afraid of the truth.

Then on page 228: "Whether this is the case or not, I suggest that Sedna's discovery draws us ever closer to that of the Dark Star's, and that this parent body will be found somewhere in the sky north of Sagittarius, probably within some of the dense star fields ignored by IRAS.  It is quite possible that it has already been catalogued, but incorrectly defined as a more distant stellar object.  (It is interesting to note that a faint 'red dwarf" star was recently identified as the third closest star to the sun, at a mere 7.8 light years.)"    Space Daily, 26 May 2003


In Chapter 12 ("The Dark Star System"), Andy quite surprised me with something.  He suggested that we triple the length of Nibiru's orbit from 3,600 years to 10,800 years!  That is in direct contradiction to what we know about the length of its "shar", and I cannot accept it.  However, oddly enough and not mentioned by Andy, we find on page 29 of Worlds In Collision by Dr. Velikovsky in a sub-chapter titled "The World Ages" this idea: "Anaximenes and Anaximander in the sixth pre-Christian century, and Diogenes of Apollonia in the fifth century, assumed the destruction of the world with subsequent recreation.  Heraclitus (-540 to -475) taught that the world is destroyed in conflagration after every period of 10,800 years."  It is certainly no "coincidence" that Heraclitus' cycle is three times one "shar" in length!  Perhaps every third "shar" is a particularly cataclysmic Crossover of Planet X.

And here, as mentioned earlier, is where I think that Andy begins to overcomplicate his general theory.  In connection with this on page 244 he mentions the Mayan Calendar and the Mayan End-Time Date of 21 December 2012.  Half of 10,800 is 5,400, which in terms of years, going back in time, equals the approximate beginning of the current Mayan Calendar. 

Andy writes, "The period between then and now roughly fits in with the current Mayan Age, which will come to an end on 21st December 2012.  This date may be associated with changes in the sun's activity, or possibly even a reversal of the solar system's neutral sheet.  Does that Age coincide with half an orbit of the Dark Star?"

Since Andy feels that the Dark Star is now near its aphelion in Sagittarius, it will not return to our vicinity until 1,800 years or even 5,400 years from now.  He postulates earlier in this chapter that the previous perihelial passage of the Dark Star probably coincided with the so-called "Star of Bethlehem" in about 6-3 BCE.  Thus, he would date the next perihelial passage of Planet X Nibiru, at a minimum, in about the year 3600 CE, long after we are dead and gone and all our writings long forgotten.  If so, then what was the "cosmic object" associated with the legends of the Exodus and such like, as documented by Dr. Velikovsky in Worlds In Collision?  Thus, I simply cannot accept the possible validity of these of Andy's ideas.


On page 280: "There is a common adage in science that the more you study a phenomenon, the more confusing it becomes.  I think it is self-evident that the material I have presented here is complex and by no means clear-cut.  Each of the three examples I have offered provide their own mystery, but taken together they lead to even greater obfuscation."

Andy obviously understands our collective lack of hard evidence in this research.  Until we can actually catalogue scientifically, from our "modern" perspective, all of the events associated with Crossover, we shall never be able to write about it with complete clarity and certainty.

Andy estimates that the Dark Star's mass is several times that of Jupiter.  Again, I disagree.  I think that Planet X is only about 5 times the size of Earth.  And again, only time will tell.

Finally, Andy ends his book on a rather philosophical note. "Our modern thinking has long since rubbished the warnings of the ancients about catastrophe.  By ignoring the ever-present dangers - our modern society - through its misplaced scepticism, has foolishly turned its back on the wisdom handed down to us from the past.  We should learn from this.  There is great wisdom to be found in the writings of the ancients, and the orally transmitted tribal teachings.  These teachings cannot replace our science, but they can, and should, complement our modern framework of knowledge. ...

"These are high stakes indeed."

Hear, hear!  High stakes indeed!


Andy's DARK STAR is an invaluable and indispensable addition to the library of anyone who is serious about The Planet X Evidence.  I wish Andy Lloyd much success with his book!

Written by Rob Solàrion, 12 December 2005

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