A scientist has identified a possible astronomical explanation for the Star of Bethlehem, as described in the Bible.
Astronomers have long searched for a cosmic explanation for the Star of Bethlehemthe luminous figure in the heavens who, according to the biblical account, guided the wise men from Jerusalem to the baby Jesus.
An old hypothesis argued that the Star of Bethlehem was, in fact, a planetary conjunctionperhaps between Jupiter and Saturn. But just in time for the upcoming festive season, a scientist comes up with a new candidate: a comet.
In a published last week in Journal of the British Astronomical Association, Mark MatneyNASA planetary scientist, points to Chinese records from 5 BC that mention a cometwhich the North American astrophysicist suggests could be the Star of Bethlehem.
Matney recalls that, when he was a student, he worked in a planetarium that featured a Christmas spectacle over the skywhich told the story of the Star of Bethlehem — that rose in the southern sky until it seemed to come to a standstill over the wizards’ heads.
The planetarium program explained that no known astronomical objects could behave in the way described in the biblical narrative — the Earth’s rotation causes everything in the sky rises in the east and sets in the west.
“I remember sitting there thinking: I know one who could do this“, says Matney, who suspected that a long period comet originating from the mysterious Oort Cloud, located far beyond the planets of the Solar System, could be the key.
If such a comet passed extremely close to Earthmore or less the same distance from the Moon, could create the strange impression of an object similar to a star that rises in the daytime sky and then appears to remain motionless for a few hours.
“A comet may appear to stay in the same place if you are basically on a ‘collision course’ with Earth», explains Matney to . “This is precisely what we would expect from an object that is going to pass very, very close to Earth.”
To test the idea, Matney reexamined previous reports of Chinese records that mention a “broom star”, an expression often used to describe comets, alluding to their dynamic tailwhich appeared in the spring of 5 BC.
These records attract the attention of those who have been looking for the Star of Belém for decades. Intriguingly, Chinese documents seem to suggest that the strange star remained in the same constellation for 70 days — too long to be a comet, which led some astronomers to assume that it might be a comet. a shiny new one, with a streaked appearance.
Matney, on the contrary, considers that This description reinforces your theory of the comet on a collision course.
Not all astronomers are so optimistic. Ralph Neuhäuseran astrophysicist at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena, Germany, who also studies the history of astronomy, considers that Chinese records can be misleading. “The older the record, in general, the less information reaches us”, he states.
Other astronomers have argued that the search for an explanation for the star is at least a false clue.
Matney does not deny the limitations of these sources, stressing that he would prefer to have more records. He says that his objective is not so much to definitively identify the Star of Bethlehem, but rather to propose a plausible astronomical object that may correspond to the described behavior.
“I am sure that this article will not be the final word on the Star of Bethlehem”, he comments Frederick Walter, astronomer at Stony Brook University. “But it seems to me to be a valid contribution to forensic astronomy.”
