With Christmas just around the corner, many people are looking forward to spending time with family and the gifts they will receive. However, Christians remember this period mainly with the story of the birth of Jesus Christ. , one scientist from the American space agency NASA claims that he has managed to reveal the origin of the Star of Bethlehem, which led the wise men to the son of God.
- NASA scientist Mark Matney claims to have discovered the origin of the Star of Bethlehem.
- He believes the star may have been a comet.
The story that appears in the Gospel of Matthew states that the Star of Bethlehem appeared over the birthplace of Jesus. Thanks to her, the Three Kings managed to get to Bethlehem and bring him gifts – gold, frankincense and myrrh.
This well-known story has puzzled historians, theologians and astronomers for a long time because they could not find any cosmic object similar to the Star of Bethlehem. A scientist from NASA, Dr. Mark Matney, however, believes that he has figured out what the wise men actually saw. In the magazine revealed that the “star” may actually have been a comet.
The Star of Bethlehem may actually have been a comet. (illustrative photo)
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He thinks it might have been a comet
The scientist assumes that it could be an object that was also noticed by the Chinese in 5 BC and was visible for more than 70 days. This record corresponds with the assumptions of many historians who place the birth of Jesus between 6 and 5 BC
Analyzing the old records, Matney identified several possible tracks that matched the Chinese observations. Based on this, he found that according to one reconstruction, the object could have become visible in June of that year. “This is the first astronomical candidate for the Star of Bethlehem that could match the Gospel description,” he concluded, adding that the comet could easily be seen during the day because it was close to Earth.
Despite the compelling conclusions, there are critics of Matney’s theory. They also include Dr. Ralph Neuhäuser, an astrophysicist at Germany’s Friedrich Schiller University, who disputed his findings and suggested that the Chinese records may be misleading. “The older the record, the less information we have about it. I know of at least 400 scientific attempts that have tried to explain the truth about the Star of Bethlehem. Most of them come to different conclusions,” he noted.
