Christmas 2025

[IronNoggin]

 

[IronNoggin]

 

[IronNoggin]

 

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Unfortunately we lost this fine fellow today;

 

[Customweld]

 

[IronNoggin]

 

[IronNoggin]

The Bible’s Star of Bethlehem May Have Been a Comet, Analysis of Ancient Records Suggests​

An odd star brightened for more than 70 days in 5 B.C.E., according to a Chinese text. The object may have been a comet that looked like it rose, then stood still over Bethlehem​

Elihu Vedder's 19th-century painting "Star of Bethlehem" Elihu Vedder, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
“After their audience with the king, [the wise men] set out,” reads chapter two of the Book of Matthew. “And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.”

This is the biblical story of the Star of Bethlehem, the celestial object that seemingly guided three wise men, or magi, to baby Jesus. As far as stars go, however, this one behaved rather strangely, which has made it difficult for researchers to identify it as an astronomical event.

Some hypotheses include aligning planets, meteors and exploding stars, but these phenomena don’t rise and suddenly stop as the Star of Bethlehem did. “This has often led to one of two conclusions: to assume the star was miraculous in nature, or to consign the entire story to the category of religious myth,” writes Mark Matney, a NASA planetary scientist, in a study published December 3 in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association.

But an analysis of ancient astronomical records may point to another possible explanation: a comet.

“My goal here was to not prove that this was the Star of Bethlehem but to show that the idea that no astronomical object can behave this way—we can no longer say that,” says Matney, who conducted the work independently of NASA, to FOX 32 Chicago’s Anita Blanton.

He came up with the idea as a college student. Back then, he worked at a planetarium, where a Christmas sky show explained that no astronomical object could act as the biblical star did, Matney tells Scientific American’s Meghan Bartels. From an earthling’s point of view, every celestial body rises in the east and sets in the west—nothing should ascend in the southern sky and come to a standstill, as the Star of Bethlehem was described doing.

“I remember sitting there saying, ‘Oh, I know one that could do that,’” he tells the outlet.

A comet that takes hundreds to millions of years to orbit the sun might. Called long-period comets, these objects are thought to come from the Oort Cloud—a theoretical shell surrounding the solar system that contains icy bodies.

Quick fact: About the Oort Cloud

Astronomer Jan Oort proposed in 1950 that some comets come from the Oort Cloud. It’s thought to reside in the most distant regions of the solar system, approximately 100 times farther from the sun than Pluto is.

If a bright comet cozied up to Earth at just the right speed, direction and distance, it could look like it’s frozen in time for a little while, Matney tells FOX 32 Chicago.

So, he scoured ancient astronomical texts in search of such an event. A historical account from China documented a strange star that appeared in the year 5 B.C.E. and glowed for more than 70 days. Constructing an orbit for this odd star—which Matney suspects was a comet—resulted in a plausible explanation for the Star of Bethlehem. “This comet could have moved in such a way as to appear to ‘go before’ someone traveling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then ‘stop’ nearly overhead for about two hours,” he writes in the paper.

But the Chinese source is potentially misleading, Ralph Neuhäuser, an astrophysicist at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany who was not involved in the study, tells Scientific American. “The older the record, in general, the less information is left,” he says.

Matney agrees but contends that ancient Chinese records have “proven to be, in general, pretty accurate” regarding astronomical events, including stellar explosions and flybys of Halley’s comet, he tells FOX 32 Chicago.

Still, he says, “until we have corroborating evidence from other observers from the ancient world, I think this remains in the category of plausible but not proven.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-bibles-star-of-bethlehem-may-have-been-a-comet-analysis-of-ancient-records-suggests-180987857/

 

[Q child]

The Bible’s Star of Bethlehem May Have Been a Comet, Analysis of Ancient Records Suggests​

An odd star brightened for more than 70 days in 5 B.C.E., according to a Chinese text. The object may have been a comet that looked like it rose, then stood still over Bethlehem​

Elihu Vedder's 19th-century painting "Star of Bethlehem" Elihu Vedder, Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
“After their audience with the king, [the wise men] set out,” reads chapter two of the Book of Matthew. “And behold, the star that they had seen at its rising preceded them, until it came and stopped over the place where the child was.”

This is the biblical story of the Star of Bethlehem, the celestial object that seemingly guided three wise men, or magi, to baby Jesus. As far as stars go, however, this one behaved rather strangely, which has made it difficult for researchers to identify it as an astronomical event.

Some hypotheses include aligning planets, meteors and exploding stars, but these phenomena don’t rise and suddenly stop as the Star of Bethlehem did. “This has often led to one of two conclusions: to assume the star was miraculous in nature, or to consign the entire story to the category of religious myth,” writes Mark Matney, a NASA planetary scientist, in a study published December 3 in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association.

But an analysis of ancient astronomical records may point to another possible explanation: a comet.

“My goal here was to not prove that this was the Star of Bethlehem but to show that the idea that no astronomical object can behave this way—we can no longer say that,” says Matney, who conducted the work independently of NASA, to FOX 32 Chicago’s Anita Blanton.

He came up with the idea as a college student. Back then, he worked at a planetarium, where a Christmas sky show explained that no astronomical object could act as the biblical star did, Matney tells Scientific American’s Meghan Bartels. From an earthling’s point of view, every celestial body rises in the east and sets in the west—nothing should ascend in the southern sky and come to a standstill, as the Star of Bethlehem was described doing.

“I remember sitting there saying, ‘Oh, I know one that could do that,’” he tells the outlet.

A comet that takes hundreds to millions of years to orbit the sun might. Called long-period comets, these objects are thought to come from the Oort Cloud—a theoretical shell surrounding the solar system that contains icy bodies.

Quick fact: About the Oort Cloud

Astronomer Jan Oort proposed in 1950 that some comets come from the Oort Cloud. It’s thought to reside in the most distant regions of the solar system, approximately 100 times farther from the sun than Pluto is.

If a bright comet cozied up to Earth at just the right speed, direction and distance, it could look like it’s frozen in time for a little while, Matney tells FOX 32 Chicago.

So, he scoured ancient astronomical texts in search of such an event. A historical account from China documented a strange star that appeared in the year 5 B.C.E. and glowed for more than 70 days. Constructing an orbit for this odd star—which Matney suspects was a comet—resulted in a plausible explanation for the Star of Bethlehem. “This comet could have moved in such a way as to appear to ‘go before’ someone traveling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then ‘stop’ nearly overhead for about two hours,” he writes in the paper.

But the Chinese source is potentially misleading, Ralph Neuhäuser, an astrophysicist at Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany who was not involved in the study, tells Scientific American. “The older the record, in general, the less information is left,” he says.

Matney agrees but contends that ancient Chinese records have “proven to be, in general, pretty accurate” regarding astronomical events, including stellar explosions and flybys of Halley’s comet, he tells FOX 32 Chicago.

Still, he says, “until we have corroborating evidence from other observers from the ancient world, I think this remains in the category of plausible but not proven.”

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/the-bibles-star-of-bethlehem-may-have-been-a-comet-analysis-of-ancient-records-suggests-180987857/

Wow. Pretty amazing to think about. I suppose we are all just flying through space on a tiny rock, aren't we?

 

[IronNoggin]

 

[Chris in TN]

 

[Customweld]

 

[IronNoggin]

 

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[IronNoggin]

Snowing like hell & sticking here in Port!
Was hoping for a White Christmas, but sincerely doubted it would happen.
Sometimes we actually get what we hope for!!

Merry Christmas Folks!

 

[IronNoggin]