What is "Wormwood"?

"Wormwood" is a reference to the book of Revelation in the Bible. If you are not up on your apocalyptic biblical literature:

“When the third angel blew his trumpet, a huge star blazing like a torch fell from heaven. It fell on one-third of the rivers and on the springs of water. The name of the star is Wormwood. One-third of the water turned into wormwood, and many people died from the water because it had turned bitter.” – Revelation 8:10-11, ISV

Usually this passage has been interpreted as referring to a comet or meteor strike. Of course it was co-opted by the doomsayers to claim that the Bible predicted 2012. So, if you are approaching this from a Christian perspective, I have one more passage for you:

“But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! Be alert! You do not know when the time will come.” – Mark 13:32-33

So, if you accept that Revelation 8:10-11 refers to ‘Wormwood’ (which is part of the ‘End Times’) then you also have to accept that nobody knows “that day or hour”.

No Object

Our previous objections to various 'doomsday objects' are pertinent here as well. There is no object like Planet X / Nibiru / Wormwood that is going to be near Earth in 2012. We know where all of the big dangerous Earth-crossing objects are or will be for the next 10 years or so. If there were a large rogue or long period object that was going to approach us in 2012, we would be able to see it by now, and we would be able to see its effects on the outer planets by now.

No Warning?

A few people have tried to make the claim that since a couple small objects just barely missed us recently, that we don’t know where all the dangerous objects are. Well, that is true, up to a point.

The objects that recently whizzed by the Earth at a distance closer than the moon’s orbit were relatively small. These small objects are devilishly hard to spot. In the case of the meteor that exploded over the Sudan, we only saw it 19 hours before it entered the atmosphere. If that’s scary to you, consider this: Just a few years ago we wouldn’t have even known about it at all, because our ability to spot and track them just wasn’t there. Ignorance is bliss. The fact that we can now find these objects, predict where they will land, and send out an alert in enough time for an airline pilot to look and see the flash, then later go and pick up pieces of the object, is *really* cool. Yay science!

Another claim was that “We weren’t told until it had passed”, which is bunk. Anyone who cares to can sign up for the alerts for these objects through the minor planets center at Harvard.

Specific claims

However, there are specific claims made about Nibiru / Planet X / Wormwood, including size, composition and orbit. None of the claims about these objects hold up to even a cursory examination, especially when talking about a 2012 encounter.