What Was the Christmas Star at Jesuss Birth?
Looking at the story of the magi and the stellar beacon from a scientific point of view, is it possible to determine what exactly the “star” was that heralded the arrival of a baby boy to the wise men? If you believe the account was more than just a story and the star was more than a story-telling device, then you need to analyze the sky around the time of Jesus’s birth to find what may have played the role of the Star of Bethlehem. The three main astronomical objects that could be responsible for the unusually bright star denoting an important event include a comet, a supernova, or a conjunction of planets. But any search of history or tour with planetarium software will quickly reveal that none of these three events occured on or around December 25, 1 A.D. However, most scholarly evidence points to the birth of Jesus occurring between 7 and 1 BC, with 4 BC being one of the most often used years. The time of year for Jesus’s birth also points to a warmer month than December. One of th
