Zecharia Sitchin

Zecharia Sitchin (Azerbaijani: Zaxariya Sitçin) was an economist and crank who believed in a "twelfth planet" called Nibiru that created all life on Earth. It is apparently a "yo-yo" planet that only shows up "every 3000 plus years", or something. It is also responsible for the asteroid belt.

Influences
He basically spliced together Immanuel Velikovsky's catastrophism with Peter Kolosimo and Erich von Däniken's ancient astronauts, using as a glue his own contribution to the mix — the long-period planet Nibiru and its inhabitants, the Anunnaki.

Sumerian language
All of this is supposedly found in a prophecy written by the ancient Sumerians and confirmed in the Old Testament.

Sitchin had a distinct advantage here. His translations of ancient Sumerian works are often "idiosyncratic", and not much like anybody else's. Only a few dozen academics in the world today are competent in Sumerian, so not many people could actually call him out properly on his nonsense.

Other beliefs
He also believed that a missile from Mars' moon Phobos shot down a Soviet probe.

Somehow, he was convinced that he was moments away from being recognized as the most important scientist of all time.

Partial bibliography

 * The 12th Planet, 1976, ISBN 0-8128-1939-X
 * The Stairway to Heaven, 1980, ISBN 0-312-75505-8
 * The Wars of Gods and Men, 1985, ISBN 0-380-89585-4
 * The Lost Realms, 1990, ISBN 0-380-75890-3
 * When Time Began, 1993, ISBN 0-380-77071-7
 * The Cosmic Code, 1998, ISBN 0-380-80157-4
 * The End of Days: Armageddon and Prophecies of the Return, 2007, ISBN 978-0-06-123823-9