Possibly as Large as Jupiter: Mystery Heavenly Body Discovered

As many of you probably know, this is the title to an article The Washington Post published in 1983 outlining the data found in the IRAS survey. The point of this thread is to dispel the rumors surrounding this article. Among these claims are that this article is proof of Nibiru and that there was a NASA cover-up of this claim. I will start this thread by posting the 1983 article posted in its whole with important parts bolded.

By Thomas O'Toole, Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, December 30, 1983 ; Page A1

A heavenly body possibly as large as the giant planet Jupiter and possibly so close to Earth
that it would be part of this solar system has been found in the direction of the constellation
Orion by an orbiting telescope aboard the U.S. infrared astronomical satellite.

So mysterious is the object that astronomers do not know if it is a planet, a giant comet, a
nearby "protostar" that never got hot enough to become a star, a distant galaxy so young that
it is still in the process of forming its first stars or a galaxy so shrouded in dust that none of the
light cast by its stars ever gets through.

"All I can tell you is that we don't know what it is," Dr. Gerry Neugebauer, IRAS chief
scientist for California's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and director of the Palomar Observatory
for the California Institute of Technology, said in an interview.

The most fascinating explanation of this mystery body, which is so cold it casts no light and
has never been seen by optical telescopes on Earth or in space, is that it is a giant gaseous
planet as large as Jupiter and as close to Earth as 50 trillion miles. While that may seem like a
great distance in earthbound terms, it is a stone's throw in cosmological terms, so close in fact
that it would be the nearest heavenly body to Earth beyond the outermost planet Pluto.

"If it is really that close, it would be a part of our solar system," said Dr. James Houck of
Cornell University's Center for Radio Physics and Space Research and a member of the
IRAS science team. "If it is that close, I don't know how the world's planetary scientists
would even begin to classify it."

The mystery body was seen twice by the infrared satellite as it scanned the northern sky from
last January to November, when the satellite ran out of the supercold helium that allowed its
telescope to see the coldest bodies in the heavens. The second observation took place six
months after the first and suggested the mystery body had not moved from its spot in the sky
near the western edge of the constellation Orion in that time.

"This suggests it's not a comet because a comet would not be as large as the one we've
observed and a comet would probably have moved," Houck said. "A planet may have moved
if it were as close as 50 trillion miles but it could still be a more distant planet and not have
moved in six months time."

Whatever it is, Houck said, the mystery body is so cold its temperature is no more than 40
degrees above "absolute" zero, which is 456 degrees Fahrenheit below zero. The telescope
aboard IRAS is cooled so low and is so sensitive it can "see" objects in the heavens that are
only 20 degrees above absolute zero.

When IRAS scientists first saw the mystery body and calculated that it could be as close as
50 trillion miles, there was some speculation that it might be moving toward Earth.

"It's not incoming mail," Cal Tech's Neugebauer said. "I want to douse that idea with as much
cold water as I can."

Then, what is it? What if it is as large as Jupiter and so close to the sun it would be part of the
solar system? Conceivably, it could be the 10th planet astronomers have searched for in vain.
It also might be a Jupiter-like star that started out to become a star eons ago but never got hot
enough like the sun to become a star.

While they cannot disprove that notion, Neugebauer and Houck are so bedeviled by it that
they do not want to accept it. Neugebauer and Houck "hope" the mystery body is a distant
galaxy either so young that its stars have not begun to shine or so surrounded by dust that its
starlight cannot penetrate the shroud.

"I believe it's one of these dark, young galaxies that we have never been able to observe
before," Neugebauer said.

"If it is, then it is a major step forward in our understanding of the size of the universe, how the
universe formed and how it continues to form as time goes on."

The next step in pinpointing what the mystery body is, Neuegebauer said, is to search for it
with the world's largest optical telescopes. Already, the 100-inch diameter telescope at Cerro
del Tololo in Chile has begun its search and the 200-inch telescope at Palomar Mountain in
California has earmarked several nights next year to look for it. If the body is close enough
and emits even a hint of light, the Palomar telescope should find it since the infrared satellite
has pinpointed its position.

As can be seen from this article, the astronomers do not know what it could be. However, they know it is not coming towards Earth and the believe it to be a young galaxy. Following this article the actual scientific article was published in the March 1, 1984 issue of Astrophysical Journal. That article can be found

As was stated in both of these articles, additional research would need to be done in order to determine the actual identity of this mystery object. It would not be long before results were produced. In 1985 the authors of the original article presented their follow-up in Astrophysical Journal titled [url=http://adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-bib_query?bibcode=1985ApJ...290L...5H&db_key=AST&high=3ccf23290006822]Unidentified IRAS sources - Ultrahigh-luminosity galaxies. In this article they stated that IRAS had found nine ultra-luminous young galaxies lightyears away. While this dispelled most of the objects discovered, there was still one left that could be a new planet.

This belief ended in 1987 with the publishing of The IRAS view of the extragalactic sky in Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics, once again by the original team. In this article they identified the final object as an infrared cirrus.

So, from what has been presented a few conclusions can be made. First, in 1983 a few mystery objects were discovered using IRAS. Second, the research team believed these objects to be young galaxies, although other hypotheses were made, including a new planet. Third, in 1985 it was confrimed that most of these objects were young galaxies. Fourth, the final mystery object was identified as an infrared cirrus in 1987. Fifth, no new planet was discovered and it definitely wasn't moving towards Earth. Sixth, there was no cover-up as the original research team published two papers following the original discovery that dispelled the belief that a new planet lurked on the edges of the solar system.

excellent thread and information star and flag we need some truth with all of this nibiru crap going on
everyday.

Yeah that was a great read S&F for you.. But they did just recently say there might be a 10th planet outside Pluto's orbit I think they even hypothetically named it Tychee or something like that i'll try an find the article

www.cbc.ca...

reply to post by Xcalibur254

LOL -- here we go again. Desperately trying to make people believe that NASA and IRAS researchers couldn't tell the the difference between a "mystery heavenly body" the size of Jupiter that's 50 billion miles away and galaxies, which are just a bit larger and further away. Just a bit...

I'll ask again, even though I've never received an answer from you or Stereologist. Care to NAME these newly-discovered galaxies? Or are you going to hand-wave my question away again with another offer to post your "scientific studies" which proves exactly squat.

Do you really expect anyone to believe your BS if you can't even provide a name for these "new types of galaxies"?

Is it proof of Nibiru? Nope, but since conventional optical scopes had never seen this object before and IRAS' infrared scope did, it's much more more likely to be something similar to a brown dwarf at the edge of our solar system rather than "galaxies" that are many light-years away. The entire premise is simply and utterly laughable.

It's like claiming that scientists discovered North America in Hoboken.

BTW, it wasn't "a few" mystery objects, it was ONE. Misrepresenting that simple fact should be all anyone needs to know.

This is truly the lamest excuse for a thread I've ever seen. 100% psy-ops from the Darth Vader dewd...

My memory sucks but it was either 1993...1995.. or 1997.... I was born in 85... so I wasnt all that old when I heard it... but I remember on CNN as clear as day.... "Scientist Discover 10th Planet behind Pluto, NASA is labeling this planet as Planet X... Since the discovery of this Planet its sparked new theories of our Solar System, NASA is looking into discovering more about this new world and is dedicating more researchers to finding these answers within the next 5 years" Maybe that isnt an exact wording of it.... going from childhood memory... but i know for fact what I heard and that was the jest of it... Never did hear anything else about it until I started visiting this site...

reply to post by GoldenFleece


I have contacted Dr. Houck himself regarding the details from his 1983 IRAS discoveries. Also, if you had read the original scientific article that was posted you would realize there were multiple mystery objects discovered. The hypocrisy on this site amazes me. People will bash the MSM for lying unless they support their beliefs, then they will ignore actual scientific articles.

Wait, OP, did you say Galaxy? How is that possible? How is it possible there is a young Galaxy is within this Solar System? This whole thing sounds like a big hoax.

The first article you linked is not Unidentified IRAS Sources: Ultrahigh-Luminosity Galaxies, it is actually Unidentified point sources in the IRAS minisurvey, the paper which started the mess in the press. It was published in March 1984 but was received by the journal in September of 1983. As is often the case, the information got out before the official publication. If you actually read the press articles in context they give a pretty fair representation of what the paper says, (though for some reason the press narrowed it down to one object, we don't know which one). Of course, no one really paid much attention to it at the time. Then, much later, the Nibiru crowd got a hold of it and started taking liberties with the context.

Here are the nine objects discussed by Houck et al. in that article (with their designations and coordinates. Note the "1950 position" is in reference to using the 1950 epoch coordinates, it has nothing to do with when the objects were found.).
[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/737d26720771.png[/atsimg]
What the paper says about them is this:

Data have been presented on nine point sources found the the course of the IRAS minisurvey with no obvious identified optical counterparts brighter than 18.5 mag. A number of candidate identifications have been considered including near-solar system, galactic, and extragalactic objects. Further observations at infrared and other wavelengths may provide additional information in support of one of these conjectures, or perhaps these objects will require entirely different interpretations.

adsbit.harvard.edu...

Aaronson and Olszewski had already identifed 0422+009 as a galaxy (1984).
adsabs.harvard.edu...

Low et al. had already identified 0412+085 as infrared cirrus (1984).
articles.adsabs.harvard.edu...

In 1985 Houck et al. published Unidentified IRAS Sources: Ultrahigh-Luminosity Galaxies. After the original IRAS survey, six of the unknown objects were subjected to further study with the Hale telescope at Palomar. Hale identified optical sources at the location of six of the infrared sources seen by IRAS and identified them:
0358+223: a galaxy with a jetlike structure
0404+101: an "almost spiral-like" galaxy
0413+122: a group of three galaxies, one of which shows an obvious redshift
1703+049: a galaxy
1712+100: a galaxy
1732+239: a galaxy
articles.adsabs.harvard.edu...

That leaves one unidentified infrared source; 0425-012. In 1985 Antonucci and Olszewski identified it as...a galaxy.
articles.adsabs.harvard.edu...

Nine unknown infrared sources discovered with an instrument never before used, a space-based infrared telescope. Upon further study (actually more of a race to figure out what they were), 8 were found to be galaxies which though dim in visible light were very bright in infrared, and 1 was found to be clouds of material emitting infrared radiation. That's what astronomical research is about.

Originally posted by Davian
Wait, OP, did you say Galaxy? How is that possible? How is it possible there is a young Galaxy is within this Solar System?

Good luck getting an answer to that one!

Originally posted by Davian
This whole thing sounds like a big hoax.

Ya think?

Just waiting for Stereologist to arrive for the Grand Hoax Triumvirate reunion tour!

Could this be it,10y later?
space.about.com...

Here's a 1984 U.S. News and World Report article about the exact same object that IRAS detected. Even though the Fearless Debunking Trio will undoubtedly continue to insist that it's a "galaxy", astronomers don't and they specifically mention a brown dwarf as one of the possibilities:

U.S. News and World Report
September 10, 1984

Planet X — Is It Really Out There?
JPEG Images courtesy of John DiNardo: Sidebar

Shrouded from the sun's light, mysteriously tugging at the orbits of Uranus and Neptune, is an unseen force that astronomers suspect may be PLanet X — a 10th resident of the Earth's celestial neighborhood.

Last year, the infrared astronomical satellite (IRAS), circling in a polar orbit 560 miles from the Earth, detected heat from an object about 50 billion miles away that is now the subject of intense speculation.

[atsimg]http://files.abovetopsecret.com/images/member/6b36f81a9707.gif[/atsimg]

"All I can say is that we don't know what it is yet," says Gerry Neugenbaur, director of the Palomar Observatory for the California Instititute of Technology. Scientists are hopeful that the one-way journeys of the Pioneer 10 and 11 space probes may help to locate the nameless body.

Some astronomers say the heat-emitting object is an unseen collapsed star or possibly a "brown dwarf" — a protostar that never got hot enough to become a star. However, a growing number of astronomers insist that the object is a dark, gaseous mass that is slowly evolving into a planet.

For decades, astronomers have noted that the orbits of two huge, distant planets — Neptune and Uranus —deviate slightly from what they should be according to the laws of physics. Gravitational pull from Planet X would explain that deviation.

Morever, says Neugebaur, "if we can show that our own solar system is still creating planets, we'll know that it's happening around other stars, too."

www.redxpro.com...

Anyone who flagged this thread should be embarrassed...

reply to post by GoldenFleece


Hey charl, it's 2011, not 1984.

And how many times does this need to be covered?

In 1984 Neptune's mass was believed to be less than what it really was, the Voyager 2 probe collected data and with the new figures, the orbits of Neptune and Uranus made sense.

Couple that with no discrepancies in the trajectories of any space probes such as Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11, Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 and you got a bunk theory, with a 27 year old article for proof...

reply to post by GoldenFleece

And you believe the MSM? How interesting. When did that start? Or do you only believe them when it suits you?

The actual source is shown above. Yes, the 1984 Houck article included, as a possible explanation, a Jupiter sized object at 570AU. I quoted it. Here it is again.

Data have been presented on nine point sources found the the course of the IRAS minisurvey with no obvious identified optical counterparts brighter than 18.5 mag. A number of candidate identifications have been considered including near-solar system, galactic, and extragalactic objects. Further observations at infrared and other wavelengths may provide additional information in support of one of these conjectures, or perhaps these objects will require entirely different interpretations.

US News chose to ignore what the astronomers really said in favor of selecting the most sensationalistic conjecture. What a surprise. At least the Washington post included the other possibilities. Yes, those "further observations" showed that all of the objects were very distant. IRAS did not find a planet.

reply to post by ArieZ


The search for Tyche is unrelated to the IRAS data of 1983. The search for new objects in the solar system has been pushed far out as space is being methodically searched for objects from asteroids to comets to new planets.

reply to post by GoldenFleece

LOL -- here we go again. Desperately trying to make people believe that NASA and IRAS researchers couldn't tell the the difference between a "mystery heavenly body" the size of Jupiter that's 50 billion miles away and galaxies, which are just a bit larger and further away. Just a bit...

The article clearly states that they do not know what the mystery object is. No one states the object IS as large as Jupiter or that it IS a specific distance away.

What do you mean by size? The article never says the "size of Jupiter."

I'll ask again, even though I've never received an answer from you or Stereologist. Care to NAME these newly-discovered galaxies? Or are you going to hand-wave my question away again with another offer to post your "scientific studies" which proves exactly squat.

This is a strawman argument of no relevance.

Do you really expect anyone to believe your BS if you can't even provide a name for these "new types of galaxies"?

The name of the new galaxy type is in the title of the article.

Nope, but since conventional optical scopes had never seen this object before and IRAS' infrared scope did, it's much more more likely to be something similar to a brown dwarf at the edge of our solar system rather than "galaxies" that are many light-years away.

This contradicts your statement that it is a brown dwarf at a particular distance. This also contradicts your statement that this is as large as Jupiter.

BTW, it wasn't "a few" mystery objects, it was ONE. Misrepresenting that simple fact should be all anyone needs to know.

Is the article referring to a new type of discovery or a single object? Apparently you don't know what was happening and why the announcement was made.

reply to post by Davian

Wait, OP, did you say Galaxy? How is that possible? How is it possible there is a young Galaxy is within this Solar System? This whole thing sounds like a big hoax.

The article never says the object IS in the solar system. It says POSSIBLY.

Despite patently lame and ridiculous attempts to misrepresent what was written in the article, nowhere in the article does it claim that the object is of a particular nature or distance.

reply to post by Davian


The galaxies are not in our solar system. They are lightyears away. When researchers first received the data they hypothesized it might be a planet amongst other things, including a new type of galaxy. Mind you, this research was from 1983. At this time it was still believed a planet may be lurking at the edge of the solar system, due to perturbations in the orbits of the gas giants. This hypothesis was dismissed after Voyager 2's flyby on Neptune, which showed astronomers had the wrong mass for the planet. When calculations were made with the new mass the perturbations disappeared and with them the need for Planet X.

reply to post by GoldenFleece


We have provided you with the original journal articles, yet you ignore these in favor of sensationalistic newspaper articles. Instead of reading the authors' actual research you choose to focus on articles that were intended to sell issues. And even then you misrepresent what these articles are saying. This is not denying ignorance. In fact, it is the very definition of ignorance.

reply to post by Arcfyre


No. That's the discovery of Eris in 2006.

reply to post by Xcalibur254

This hypothesis was dismissed after Voyager 2's flyby on Neptune, which showed astronomers had the wrong mass for the planet. When calculations were made with the new mass the perturbations disappeared and with them the need for Planet X.

I always wondered..How does a flyby tell them mass??
I can understand volume but mass??