NASA announced it had found a new seven-planet star system, called Trappist-1, to much fanfare recently.
But Jewish mystics appear to have beaten us to it – by predicting the discovery almost 2,000 years earlier.
And an Israeli filmmaker has claimed Trappist-1 is really the giant hidden planet Nibiru or Planet X – which is prophesied to destroy Earth.
UK space boffins at Liverpool John Moores University, working with US space agency NASA, announced they had located seven planets in February around the dwarf star Trappist-1 – 39 light years from Earth.
But – in an astounding coincidence – author David Meade said a star called Nibiru with seven planets around it was approaching Earth a month earlier.
Now movie producer and Nibiru “expert” Yuval Ovadia has said Nibiru and Trappist-1 are one and the same.
And their discovery was prophesied in the Bible thousands of years ago.
Worryingly, he has identified Old Testament verses and ancient Jewish scriptures that appear to say seven heavenly bodies will be seen before the Messiah walks the Earth.
Mr Ovadia points to the Zohar, the series of books that inspired the Jewish mystical movement Kabbalah, which is popular with celebs such as Madonna.
The scripture – believed to be written up to 2,000 years ago – apparently says: “After forty days, when the pillar rises from Earth to heaven in the eyes of the whole world and the Messiah has appeared, a star will rise up on the east, blazing in all colours, and seven other stars will surround that star.”
He also says the book Numbers, which is in the Old Testament of the Bible and the Jewish Torah, also says a star will herald the coming of the Messiah.
Numbers Chapter 24: 17 says: “There shall come a Star out of Jacob [a nation of Israelites], and a Sceptre shall rise out of Israel.”
Of course, the Star of Bethlehem is supposed to have appeared before Jesus’ birth.
Speaking exclusively Daily Star Online, Mr Ovadia said: “We religious Jews go first by holy books, and only after that we consider other books, such as science books.
“Therefore, if the Zohar says this star, surrounded by seven other stars or planets, will show up in the sky and the whole world will see it – and right then is when the Messiah will be revealed in Galilee – so that is what I believe is going to happen.
“We are in amazing great times. The end of this corrupted material world and the beginning of a new enlightenment world of the Messiah is coming very soon.”
Conspiracy theorists have been predicting Nibiru – a mysterious world supposedly populated by an alien race known as the Annanuki – would return since at least the 1970s.
The man who first wrote about it in the modern age, Zecharia Sitchin, claimed to have based his research on ancient texts by two Middle Eastern cultures – the Babylonians and Sumerians.
His followers were ridiculed as cranks – until scientists at the California Institute of Technology found evidence that suggested the prophesy might actually be true.
An artist’s impression of Nibiru approaching Earth
Astronomers announced they had found evidence of a long-fabled ninth planet up to 15 times the size of Earth in the dark outer reaches of the Solar System in January last year.
They named the icy giant – which takes 20,000 Earth years to orbit the Sun – “Planet 9”.
And – in another unbelievable coincidence – Daniel Whitmire, of the University of Louisiana, claims Planet 9 has wiped out all life on Earth before.
So conspiracy theorists have been warning for years that a giant hidden planet called Nibiru will wipe out life on Earth.
Then respected astronomers announce they have “discovered” a giant hidden planet that could wipe out life on Earth.
Conspiracy theorists say the planet, Nibiru, is actually part of a star system made up of seven planets.
Then NASA announces it has found a new seven-planet star system.
Interestingly, David Meade – the “doomsdayer” who said Nibiru was really seven planets – said it would hit or pass near Earth this year in October.
And – in yet another startling coincidence – Mike Brown, the Caltech professor who “discovered” the real Planet 9 said it would be seen in the sky “by winter 2017”.
Coincidence? Mr Ovadia thinks not.
Like many conspiracy theorists, he believes Planet 9, Trappist-1, Planet X and Nibiru are all the same thing – and NASA is slowly being forced to admit it.
He told Daily Star Online: “NASA in particular, and the American government in general, has been trying hard to hide the existence of the Planet X or Nibiru Constellation for many years now.
“In my lectures for the past year, I have said that the closer we get to the revelation of this constellation in the sky, the more information will be revealed by NASA regarding it – although they would never admit it openly.”
He continued: “They cannot ignore the many photos, videos and other evidence people have taken of it with a naked eye, in the last few years.
“Therefore in January, NASA said that ‘most likely’ they had found Planet 9. Now they just said they found a solar system/constellation very far from us.
“These are all referring to the same thing we are expecting and talking about – Planet X, Nibiru or whatever you want to call it.
“They just reveal a little information, while hiding much more from the public.”
Mr Ovadia predicted NASA and the science community will reveal more and more details as time goes on.
He said: “What NASA just discovered must be our Nibiru constellation – otherwise why would they all of a sudden talk about finding another solar system out there in space? So what? Everybody knows we have millions of solar systems out there.
“[The mounting evidence is] the only reason they have started to reveal, slowly but surely, more information about it.”
He added: “And they will keep doing so, the closer we get to the deadline – although they will never say explicitly that it is coming towards us and that it has any effect on us.
“This thing they will never say, even when the whole world can see it clearly out here in the sky.
“NASA will still say: ‘It’s very far from us, do not worry about it, just take some pictures of it and keep living your life…’” (With inputs from various sources)