The conspiracy theory of IRAS
is primarily due to there not being any
follow-up news reports. NASA
obviously put a lid on the news
according to the Planet X supporters.
In reality what IRAS found
was not an exciting or newsworthy
discovery. Nothing unknown
and mysterious for sensational
headlines as in the case of the
1983 story.
According to Dr. Mike Dworetsky,
Director University of London
Observatory, "The object in
question was eventually identified as
a denser knot of "interstellar
cirrus" in Taurus (not in Orion but a
bit to the west) while the other
objects the team were interested
in were identified as infra-red-bright
galaxies."
"The object was designated as
0412+085 in Houck J.R. et al,
Astrophysical Journal Letters
vol 278, p L63, 1984 and
reported as infrared cirrus
in Houck, J.R. et al, Astrophysical
Journal Letters vol 290, p.
L5, 1985. The other objects, as the
article stresses, were identified
as very faint galaxies."
So what did IRAS find? A knot
of interstellar cirrus, which is
simply an area of dust grains
between the stars. This would
not make a very exciting news
story, certainly not up to the 1983
Washington Post story.
Unidentified Point Sources in the IRAS Minisurvey vol 278 p L63 1984
Unidentified IRAS Sources: Untrahigh-Luminosity Galaxies vol 290 p L5 1985