How can we see stars and planets light years way and not a "ghost" planet in the neighbourhood?

Question

You're probably familiar with the 2012 doomsday theory, that says that Nibiru (planet X) is making a comeback in it's very long orbit and cause serious disturbances to our planet (or even destroy it). I've read some articles and seen some videos that have somewhat compeling "proof" (just theories) that this is really true. Some of them are so well made that hey can scare you and almost convince you that something bad is gonna happen.

But my question is... if we can detect extrasolar planets orbiting stars that are light years away from us... Wouldn't we have seen a wild planet orbiting our neighbourhood by now? I mean... shouldn't any celestial body be visible by now if it were to really make an approach on 2012?

Answer 1

OMG! Logic! That does not apply to Nibiru. Please stop!

You are correct. If there were something big enough out there that was going to mess up the orbits of the planets in four years, we would have seen it by now.

Answer 2

BINGO!

That is why they call them conspiracy theories.  They are completely false and made up to scare people.  People crave excitement so they are compelled to read and even believe it is true.  It's kind of boreing to say that it won't happen so they choose to believe the lies.

Thank the Good Lord that there are still some of you out there who are able to use common sense and logic and see through all the nonsense!  How Refreshing!

Answer 3

It has all to do with the objects absolute magnitude. This is how much light it gives off. A planet has very little amount of light and a star has a very high amount of light. The only way they see far away planets is through other waves of the spectrum. I.E. x-ray or ultraviolet. A star gives off billions of times more light than a little planet.

Answer 4

extrasolar planets are perhaps a bit of a red herring because we can't actually "see" them as in direct imaging, they are inferred from various properties of the light from the star they orbit. perhaps a more conclusive example is kuiper belt objects such as pluto, eris and sedna. these are very small solar system objects, found at distances over thirty times the distance between the sun and earth. many of them are not in the ecliptic plane (where until recently, astronomers have been concentrating their efforts). if astronomers can find those objects, they could certainly find a planet that would collide with earth a mere four years from now, which would have to be - I don't know, I guess well inside the orbit of saturn - no more than 10 AU away. but there is no evidence of such a planet. those making predictions must have orbital parameters for this body, if they have a physical model that's anywhere near being correct. so they should be able to tell astronomers where it is NOW, and they could detect it if it's actually there. the obvious conclusion, which for some silly reason they won't accept, is that it's not there.

Answer 5

Well, for starters, the whole 2012 thing is a hoax.  So don't worry about that.  

We can see stars that are far away because they give off light.  

Planets merely reflect light, so they're much more difficult to detect.  

As for exoplanets (extrasolar planets, planets outside our solar system that orbit other stars) we haven't actually "seen" any of them.  Scientists detect exoplanets by documenting the changes in the parent star (such as minute changes in brightness if the exoplanet's orbit causes it to pass between us and the parent star, and also star wobbles which are gravitational effects on the parent star caused by the planet's orbit).  

Trying to actually "see" an exoplanet would be like staring into a bright flashlight and trying to see a dust mote floating just to the side of it.  The flashlight is too bright and the dust mote is too small.  

But you're correct, if a rogue planet were going to hit the earth in 2012 we would have seen it by now.

Answer 6

The simple answer to your question is "yes," we would have noticed Nibiru, if not observed it directly than at the very least noticed its gravitational effect on other bodies.

Answer 7

well, who's to say that planets can't be orbiting the sun that are nearly half way to the nearest star since gravity's reach is infinite?

Answer 8

that's the point: if nibiru existed, it would be an obvious naked-eye object.

no youtube video can be "compelling" evidence of anything. that's part of the problem.

Answer 9

You are exactly correct.

Planet X and Nibiru are not real - we would have detected them if they existed.

Even if they were small and cool, they would have been detected by far infrared and cosmic microwave background sky surveys (which covered pretty much the whole sky).

Please spread this point mongst your friends and put an end to the 2012/Planet X nonsense...

Answer 10

Read the link below, which tells us all about how Nibiru was going to cause devastation in 2003.

Then have a good laugh.

http://www.rense.com/ufo5/nib2000.htm