At this time three wise men from the east saw a star, they came in search, knowing the star signified the birth of the king of the Jews. Though that quote is slightly paraphrased, we all know it as part of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ and refers to the Christmas star. Was the Christmas star really a star or a planet? Even if it is a planet, does that matter to people other than astronomers?
As a matter of pure faith, the Christmas star is one of the strongest and purest symbols of Christianity. There is nothing that can be done, or proven, that will ever change that. A star adorns the top of millions of Christmas trees around the world and will until the end of days. For centuries scientists, scholars, and historians have debated the nature of this biblical light that heralded the birth of Christ. Was it purely a divine sign, created miraculously to mark a special birth? Or was it an astronomical event in its own right?
Each year at this time people look in the west to the heavens and see a bright shining Christmas star that is really the planet Venus. Some scientists wanted to be sure that Venus was or was not the origin of the Christmas star legend, so they armed themselves with some information and a bit of computer software and set off to prove or disprove the star’s existence. Using information garnered from the book of Matthew and the generally accepted consensus that Christ was born between 3 BC and 1 AD, researchers found that historical records and modern-day computer simulations indicate a rare series of planetary groupings, also known as conjunctions, during the years 3 BC and 2 BC. On 12 August, 3 BC, Jupiter and Venus appeared very close together in the dark hours just before sunrise, appearing as bright morning ‘stars.’ They would have been visible in the eastern pre-dawn sky. A short ten months later, on 17 June 2 BC, Venus and Jupiter conjoined again. This time the two planets were so close that, without the use of modern optical aids, they would have looked like one single, brilliant Christmas star. Since Jupiter was known as the ‘planet of Kings’ and Saturn as the ‘Protector of the Jews, this could easily have been interpreted as a sign that the Jewish Messiah had been, or was about to be, born.
Scientists have proven that the Christmas star was most likely the conjunction of the planets Jupiter and Venus in a rare event that made both of them more brilliant and easily observed with the unaided eye. The faithful will say that if that conjunction was the Christmas star, it was caused by God to herald the birth of his only Son. It is a matter of your disposition as to who is correct.
We tend to deal with fact based stories on this website, but here is a biblical accounting of the Christmas star. Here on Universe Today we offer a great article about the Christmas star. Astronomy Cast has a good episode about the star.
References:
http://newsinfo.iu.edu/OCM/packages/bethstar.html
http://sciastro.net/members/portia.php/2009/01/30/the-star-of-bethlehem
Comments on this entry are closed.