"Astronomers have long sought a cosmic explanation for the Bible's Star of Bethlehem, the shining celestial object that, so the story goes, guided the wise men, or magi, from Jerusalem to greet the baby Jesus. One long-standing hypothesis held that the Star of Bethlehem was in fact a conjunction, perhaps between Jupiter and Saturn. But this holiday season, a scientist has presented a new contender: a comet."
"Reports of a comet are found in Chinese records from 5 B.C.E., according to research published on December 3 in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association and written by Mark Matney, a planetary scientist at NASA, who conducted the research independently of the agency. Matney recalls how, as a student, he worked at a planetarium that ran a Christmas sky show telling the story of the Star of Bethlehem, which rose in the southern"
Reports in Chinese records from 5 B.C.E. mention a comet. A long-period comet originating in the Oort Cloud making an extremely close pass to Earth, potentially as near as the Moon, could appear as a bright, starlike object visible in daylight. Such an object could rise in the southern sky and appear to stand still overhead for hours if its trajectory was nearly straight toward Earth. That appearance could account for the narrative of a guiding celestial object. The comet hypothesis offers an alternative to planetary conjunction explanations involving Jupiter and Saturn.
Read at www.scientificamerican.com
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