Astronomy Buff

Five Things the Star of Bethlehem Could Have Been

by Tony on December 13th, 2007

Today is b5Media’s Science and Heath Channel Theme Day and this week we decided to go with a top x holiday list.

I’m picking (on) the star of Bethlehem. Every year ’round this time, we astronomy buffs get questions about the star of Bethlehem. I blame the planetaria. They insist on putting on a “Christmas” show that goes through all the astronomical events around the time Jeebus was supposed to have been born and make a show about it.

[BTW, the ONLY Christmas planetarium show worth its weight is Mark Petersen’s Season of Light, narrated by Noah Adams. Seek it out at the planetarium near you!]

The popularity of these shows always surprise me because they generally take on a tone of de-bunking what Christians say the star was: some kind of landing-light put up by God to make it easy to find his son and give him presents.

OK, so here’s the top five things the Star of Bethlehem could have been (besides a holy flashlight):

1. A triple conjunction of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in Pisces in February 6 B.C.E.
2. A conjunction of the Moon and Jupiter in the constellation of Aries in April of 6 B.C.E.
3. A very close pairing of Venus and Jupiter in Leo that occured around 2 B.C.E. in which the planets seemed to merge as seen with the naked eye
4. A nova. There was one recorded by Chinese astronomers in the constellation Capricorn in March–April of 5 B.C.E. which was visible for over 70 days.
5. A comet, although none were recorded during the time Jesus was thought to have been born.

Here’s a link for further reading on this. Here’s something NASA put out. And someone wrote a book about it.

I’d like to see a planetarium show about this written by the Creation Museum, I think I’d find it supremely entertaining. The wise men would have had to dodge dinosaurs on their way to the manger.

Personally, I think the Star of Bethlehem was a porch light turned on by Joseph so the pizza guy could find the place. Even then light pollution was a problem.

Image Credit: Eye Captain

Above image credit: This guy

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