CONSPIRACY theorists have claimed a giant planet lurking on the edge of our Solar System will wipe out humanity in a collision with Earth this year.
Keen conspiracy theorists have long believed in the existence of a distant 9th planet in our Solar System, but were ridiculed by the scientific community for years.
However, the claims of these theorists were lent weight after space experts at the California Institute of Technology revealed they had found evidence for a giant ice planet just beyond Pluto.
The frosty world, known as ‘Planet 9’, was recently found to be on a 20,000-year orbit of the Sun, with a mass 10 times that of Earth.
Worryingly, the same group who turned out to be right about Planet 9’s existence also had an apocalyptic warning that a massive hidden planet with a very long orbit will crash into Earth in 2016.
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Rogue scientists had speculated about the existence of another planet since the 1800s, but their theories were rubbished and the search for what they termed ‘Planet X’ was called off.
They also claimed to have found a description of a huge planet among the work of the ancient Babylonian civilisation, a society well known for being pioneers of astronomy.
These maverick theorists now believe Planet 9 was the planet we were being warned about by the Babylonians, with theories emerging to suggest this planet will smash into Earth this year.
NASA has, however, warned it is too early to confirm the existence of Planet 9 for sure but pledged “if it's there, we'll find it.”