What was the "Star of Bethlehem"? People of faith believe the star was a miraculous sign of the birth of Christ, that it doesn't matter what it was in astronomical terms; it's in Matthew's gospel as guiding the Wise Men to Bethlehem, and that is sufficient.
For 500 years, prominent scientists and theologians have debated what the star could have been. A lack of references to the star in ancient texts hinders modern researchers. The Chinese, usually excellent chroniclers of the night sky, have reported on several astronomical phenomena that appeared between 6 BC and 2-3 BC, when Jesus was born, which offer some tantalizing hints about what the Magi saw.
In 1614, German astronomer Johannes Kepler determined that a series of three conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 BC. Kepler, one of the most brilliant astronomers ever born, was embarrassingly wrong. There was a full degree of separation between the two planets during the conjunction, making it extremely unlikely that the Magi would have mistaken the conjunction for one star.
The Magi were probably not "kings" or "wise men." They may have been royal astrologers (the early church considered astrology "demonic," hence the change to "kings") who had spent their lives studying the night sky. A celestial event that ordinary people wouldn't have noticed would have jumped out at them, prompting them to set off on their long journey.
The possibility of a planetary conjunction is not out of the question. In 3–2 BC, there was a series of seven conjunctions, including three between Jupiter and Regulus (the "King" star) and a strikingly close conjunction between Jupiter and Venus near Regulus on June 17, 2 BC. Jupiter and Venus are two of the brightest objects in the night sky, but even if they were close together, the astrologers would have known they weren't a "star."
That leaves other celestial events as a possibility. An exploding star, or "supernova," would do nicely. A supernova would outshine every other object in the night sky for weeks. Astronomers have found one such candidate, confirmed by Chinese observations, that was visible in February of 4 BC and could have been seen in the Near East at the time. The supernova's remnants can still be seen today.
However, the most likely candidate for an astronomical explanation for the Star of Bethlehem is a long-period comet that may have passed this way only once.
Mark Matney, a planetary scientist at NASA, conducted research independently of the agency and has some tantalizing connections between a particular kind of comet and the Star of Bethlehem.
If such a comet made an extremely close pass to Earth—about as close as the moon—it could create the strange appearance of a starlike object rising in the daylit sky and then appearing to stand still for a few hours. “A comet could stay in one place if it was basically on a ‘collision course’ with Earth,” Matney says. “That’s exactly what you would expect of an object that’s going to pass very, very close to the Earth.”
To test the idea, Matney turned to previous reports of Chinese records of a “broom star”—a term that has often been used to describe comets, in reference to their dynamic tail—that appeared in the spring of 5 B.C.E. The records have drawn the attention of Star of Bethlehem hunters for decades.
Intriguingly, the Chinese records seem to suggest that the strange star remained in the same constellation for 70 days—far too long for a comet, leading some astronomers to assume the object was perhaps a bright nova with a rayed appearance. Matney, meanwhile, says this description supports his collision-course-comet theory.
One troubling part of Matthew's account is the reaction of King Herod to hearing the news from the Magi. Herod had apparently not heard from his own astrologers about the Star and its significance. This suggests that the Star of Bethlehem may not be as noticeable as it's been portrayed.
The shepherds saw the star (they, too, were expert observers of the night sky). It helped that they were visited by an angel who told them the good news, but they already knew something momentous had happened after observing whatever it was they saw in the night sky.
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Does it really matter? Resolving the questions of what the Star of Bethlehem was or wasn't, or who the "wise men" were, won't shake anyone's faith or cause a wave of religious conversions.
But a small piece of the puzzle of who we are and what our place in the universe is might have been illuminated. That's worth the effort by itself.
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