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  • This is the fictional planet Nibiru which has been predicted to slam into Earth, resulting in the end of the world.

  • The scenario is known to doomsayers as the Nibiru cataclysm.

  • It was allegedly supposed to have occurred several times over the last decade but most recently in April of 2018.

  • Needless to say... it didn't happen.

  • Even though planetary collisions aren't widely observed today, it's believed they were once

  • pretty common and they left lasting impacts on the planets in our solar system and beyond.

  • Uranus is thought to have been a victim of a major collision.

  • Billions of years ago an object, at least twice the mass of Earth, crept up a little

  • too close to young Uranus, and the two bodies slammed into each other with great force.

  • Researchers say the cataclysmic collision was so strong it caused Uranus to shift onto its side.

  • This theory would explain why the planet has an axial tilt of nearly 98 degrees which is

  • far more dramatic than the rest of the solar system.

  • Fortunately, Uranus managed to maintain the majority of its atmosphere so it's still around today.

  • However, not all planetary masses survive impacts on this scale.

  • Earth is thought to have been at the center of a catastrophic collision that destroyed another planet.

  • The Giant Impact Hypothesis - aka The Big Splash or the Theia Impact - suggests that

  • an object about the size of Mars moved towards Earth more than four billion years ago.

  • It then slammed into our protoplanet and vaporized on impact.

  • The theory claims that debris from the decimated planet was pulled into Earth's orbit and

  • over time, the pieces are thought to have clumped together, eventually forming the Moon.

  • While this is estimated to have happened a really long time ago, there are some planetary

  • collisions that are thought to have occurred a lot more recently.

  • Within the last few thousand years, it's believed two planets orbiting a young star were involved in a violent, catastrophic collision.

  • The impact annihilated the smaller planet, sending its remains far into space in the form of vaporized rock and metal.

  • Since this was a relatively recent collision, some of the remains are still present and

  • in 2009 NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope found evidence of the impact.

  • It detected traces of silicon monoxide gas - a product of a vaporized planetary crust.

  • Scientists believe the findings help back up the Giant Impact Hypothesis.

  • So could history repeat itself?

  • Could a planet ever collide with Earth?

  • Scientists say it's highly unlikely.

  • While large-scale collisions were prevalent when our solar system was young, it would

  • be extremely rare for one to occur in a stable and established system like our own.

  • On top of that, if a planet were to come remotely close enough to threaten Earth, astronomers

  • would be able to spot it years, if not decades, before impact.

  • So, it's safe to say, we don't have to worry about a rogue planet obliterating our existence

  • - well at least not in our lifetime.

  • If you're looking to learn more about space exploration and astronomical phenomena

  • be sure to watch this episode of Space Crafts.

  • And don't forget to subscribe to Seeker for all things science.

  • Thanks for watching!

This is the fictional planet Nibiru which has been predicted to slam into Earth, resulting in the end of the world.

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