End of the world scheduled to begin in April - failed doomsday preacher

Astronomers are banging their heads against the wall following new claims the world is going to end thanks to the non-existent planet 'Nibiru'.

UK tabloids are reporting David Meade, a Christian numerologist who has incorrectly predicted the end of the world several times, has set a new date for the end - October.

According to the Daily Express, Mr Meade's latest wacky prediction is based on passages from the Bible describing a pregnant woman wearing a crown giving birth in the sky.

The end times begin on April 23, when - according to Mr Meade - "the moon appears under the feet of the constellation Virgo".

"The Sun appears to precisely clothe Virgo... Jupiter is birthed on April 08, 2018. The 12 stars at that date include the nine stars of Leo, and the three planetary alignments of Mercury, Venus and Mars - which combine to make a count of 12 stars on the head of Virgo," he told the Express.

"Thus the constellations Virgo, Leo and Serpens-Ophiuchus represent a unique once-in-a-century sign exactly as depicted in the 12th chapter of Revelation. This is our time marker."

The Antichrist will rise to start World War III, and to make matters worse Nibiru will reportedly appear in the skies that same day.

Small problem - Nibiru doesn't exist, and the positions of the planets according to astrologers bear no resemblance to reality.

Space.com researcher and writer Elizabeth Howell said Mr Meade's claim Jupiter, the moon and the sun will all be in Virgo is false.

"Jupiter is actually in Libra all day and night on April 23, while the moon is between Leo and Cancer. The sun, out of view when Jupiter and the moon are in the sky, is over by Pisces. None of those bodies is in Virgo, and again, even if they were, astrology is not real science."

Astrology - "not science".
Astrology - "not science". Photo credit: Getty

The discrepancy comes because astrologists arbitrarily divide the sky into 12 equal-sized parts for their zodiac, and the divisions don't line up with the actual constellations they're named after.

As for Nibiru, NASA has repeatedly said it doesn't exist. If it was close enough to be visible in the skies on April 23, astronomers would already have seen it - or at least detected its gravitational effects on the rest of the solar system.

Celebrity physicist Brian Cox last year threatened to slap people in the heads if they asked him about "the imaginary bullshit planet" Nibiru.

Mr Meade made the same prediction last year, dating the end times to September. When it failed to happen, he changed it to October. Now he's picking October this year.

A book he released last year, Planet X - 2017 Arrival - was widely panned as being plagiarised nonsense.

Throughout history, proponents of doomsday conspiracy theories have had a zero percent success rate.

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