People are trying to claim there are two suns in our solar system

Thanks to the internet we are constantly exposed to the most bizarre conspiracy theories, and the latest popular theory claims there is a second Sun... hiding behind our real Sun.

The theory was posted to the Facebook group 'Nibiru Followers Anonymous', and hey claim that haze of light that can occasionally be seen around the Sun, and this proves there is a second Sun hidden behind the one we all know. The reality? This haze of light is actually a phenomenon known as "Sun halos" [via IFL Science].

According to the National Weather Service, a "Sun halo" (which can also occur around the Moon) forms "as the Sun or Moon light refracts off ice crystals present in a thin veil of cirrus clouds". These halos are "usually seen as a bright, white ring although sometimes it can have colour".

If there was a second Sun we would definitely know about it, seeing as astronomers have studied the orbits of the planets for hundreds of years. A second Sun would not be missed.

If a second Sun did decide to hide from us on Earth, it would have to orbit the actual Sun at precisely the right speed to maintain its invisibility. Even then, spacecrafts would have spotted the second Sun from different vantage points... and they haven't.

It is likely conspiracy theorists jumped on the idea all the way back in 2016, when astronomer Paul Cox seemingly made a joke about an optical error during a livestream that showed a transit of Mercury across the Sun.

The error caused an orb to appear on the screen, which led Cox to joke: “You may be asking yourself, what is that large round thing to the right of the Sun? Well, that’s our second Sun. I don’t know if you knew that we had a second Sun.

“But there it is. It is normally hidden from view. NASA and other organisations usually hide that stuff away from us.”

Clearly some didn't get the joke.

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