Riddle of Planet X

Article by Geoff Ward, Western Daily Press

 

A West scientist and author has made the astonishing prediction that we will soon have the momentous proof that our Sun has another star in orbit around it. Such proof would shake science to its foundations and completely alter our way of looking at the solar system.

Andy Lloyd, 37, of Longlevens, Gloucester, who carefully assesses the evidence in a new book, puts forward a convincing case for the existence of the mysterious "dark star", or "Planet X", as it has also been called.

Scientists have speculated about a hidden body orbiting the Sun for a century at least, and there has been mounting interest in the subject of such a binary star system since the 1980s, with a variety of theories being put forward - but, as yet, no discovery.

A possible contender for the companion star was located in 1983 by the Infra-Red Astronomical Satellite (IRAS), but the findings were never confirmed. Another was the "Nemesis" star, discussed by the American astronomer Carl Sagan following results of research announced in 1984 by the University of Louisiana. It was the late Sagan and his Cosmos TV series in the 1980s that inspired Andy to take up science and gain a first-class honours degree in chemistry at Lancaster University. Now he has put forward his own formulation of the Nemesis theory.

The Dark Star by Andy Lloyd

 

He told me that he believes the dark star is a small version of what astronomers call a "brown dwarf" - a body caught half way between being a star and a planet - with its own retinue of satellites and a 10,000-year orbit around the Sun. It is now at its furthest point from us - a thousand times the distance from the Earth to the Sun - and so would be a vanishingly small object and, because of the enormous distance, apparently stationary, giving it the misleading appearance of a fixed star.

Indeed, Andy says it may already have been detected and catalogued erroneously as a star in the Milky Way galaxy.

It would be about the size of Jupiter, the largest planet in our solar system, but much heavier and denser and capable of generating both heat and light.

Andy has calculated that Planet X lies in the constellation of Sagittarius, in what is known as the "Oort cloud", the deep-space origin of many comets that pass through the solar system. "Two new space telescopes are due to be launched in the next couple of years, and if these between them don't spot the star then it's not there," he admitted. "If it hasn't been found within five years, it doesn't exist.

"But my book is basically a prediction that the star will be found within five years. The discovery will create a whole new structure in astronomy.

"I have had to be as scientific as I can to make this leap into the unknown. But in the last year or two science has really turned in my direction on this issue, which is really exciting."

Andy believes that evidence for an approach by the dark star, when one of its planets swung through the outer reaches of our solar system and became visible from Earth, can be found in the writings of the ancient Sumerian civilisation which flourished in the Middle East 5,000-6,000 years ago.

This is when the star would have last passed, if it is on a 10,000-year orbit, coinciding, significantly, with the invention of the calendar about 3,800BC.

Andy takes a cue from the Russian scholar Zecharia Sitchin whose book The Twelfth Planet caused a stir when it was published in 1976.

Sitchin proposed that the Sumerian creation myth of a cosmic battle between the gods was actually an account of a new celestial body entering the solar system four billion years ago which created the Earth through a collision with another planet, the remains of which are the belt of asteroids which lie between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter.

Andy thinks this body was indeed the binary companion star.

He says it may hold the key to long-term shifts in the climate of the Earth, and that the changes we are experiencing now may be "symptomatic of adjustments in that cosmic balance of power".

 

Article written by Geoff Ward for 'The Western Daily Press' (23/12/05) and reproduced with his permission.

 

  You can order your copy of Dark Star for $9.99 through Amazon.com here:

The Dark Star: The Planet X Evidence

  If you live in the UK you can obtain your copy for £14.50 through Amazon.co.uk here:

The Dark Star: The Planet X Evidence

 

 

The X file that has come to life

Article by Geoff Ward, Western Daily Press

 

Author Andy Lloyd has been stunned to find that a character in his debut novel has eerily "come to life". Andy's jaw dropped when he saw in the news that former Russian KGB officer Alexander Lebedev had taken control of the London Evening Standard newspaper – for Andy had included a spookily similar figure in his novel Ezekiel One, just out, but written a year ago.

It's an amazing coincidence that, in his science fiction thriller, Andy features a Mr Provotkin who, like Mr Lebedev, is a wealthy Russian oligarch living in London – and Provotkin is also the owner of the London Daily Standard. Provotkin is obsessed with breaking a conspiracy involving the United States' National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the 2012 "doomsday" prophecy and a mysterious Planet X far out in space.

"I was very excited by this," said Andy, who lives at Longlevens, Gloucester, "because it's fact coming out of fiction. I thought how on Earth could I have possibly dreamed that up and then it came true, because it seemed such an off-the-wall thing.  In the book, people look back from 2012 to the point where Provotkin took over the paper, and say it was very controversial, and at Westminster there was a bit of scandal because this Russian oligarch had taken over a British newspaper which, of course, is exactly what has happened."

Photo by Fiona Lloyd

Andy wonders if it was some kind of unconscious prediction on his part, especially as the title of the book is taken from a verse of Old Testament prophecy. So, what else in Ezekiel One might come true? Well, for one thing, Andy includes the coronation of Prince Charles as King George VII. "I can't imagine he wants to be King Charles III because of what happened to the first two – they weren't terribly successful monarchs," said Andy. And there's the murder of a Cheltenham GCHQ worker who had been leaking secret documents to the Press.

"I also describe America coming out of a recession in 2012, which is interesting because a year ago it was barely being talked about and we're in quite dire straits now."

On top of all this, Planet X could become a reality, too. In his 2005 book, Dark Star: the Planet X Evidence, Andy set out his theory, supported by some scientists, that the Sun has a "binary companion" star which at present is too far away in deep space to detect easily. The Binary Research Institute was set up in California in 2001 to support and fund research on the hypothesis.

Andy said the object could be a small "failed star", with light output practically extinguished, but having indirect effects on our solar system. This "dark star" was capable of causing great catastrophes on Earth in the past, and could cause another global disaster in the future.

"If the discovery of Planet X comes to fruition in the next few years, that's another part of the book," added Andy, who will be among the speakers at the Return of Planet X conference in Rome on February 7-8.

 

Written by Geoff Ward.  Journalist Geoff Ward is author of the book "Spirals", available from Green Magic Publishing.  

 

  You can order your copy from Amazon.com here:

Ezekiel One

  If you live in the UK you can obtain your copy from Amazon.co.uk here:

Ezekiel One