The late Zecharia Sitchin studied ancient Sumerian clay tablets and other ancient texts, and reconstructed events that support the existence of extraterrestrial "gods" who controlled our destiny. In one of his first-ever appearances on C2C, Sitchin laid out his "12th Planet" hypothesis. According to his reading of 6000-year-old Mesopotamian texts, Sitchin described an extraterrestrial planet that collided with another planet that existed between Mars and Jupiter, with some of the debris becoming the asteroid belt, with the rest evolving into a "12th planet" with a highly elliptical orbit of 3600 years, called Nibiru.
The ancient Babylonians conceived of twelve planets in total in the solar system, Sitchin explained. He claimed that the recent discovery of the Hale-Bopp comet was a "harbinger" of the return of Nibiru to the inner solar system, which would bring catastrophes upon the Earth. He concluded that many new discoveries are "modern science catching up with ancient knowledge," and that humankind was heading for a final judgment in the near future.