The first site Google supplied me with is www.adrianberry.net which is ran by Adrian Berry a scientific author and columnist. From what I read, she does not seem to be a believer in God as most (not all) scientists are not. The science minded usually need facts and research and proof. Ms. Berry goes on about the rules of the universe and how this story of a star that "went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was." was breaking those rules. She went on to say that stars can do extraordinary things such as collapse, explode, change their brightness for weeks at a time, and become clocks so accurate that they will not gain or lose a second in five millions years, but they do not rush across the heavens and then stop dead over one spot. I believe her goal in this column was to debunk the made up story of a magical star and give some realness to the situation. She throws out a common suggestion that the Star was in fact the giant planet Jupiter emerging from behind the Moon after an eclipse. Adrian referenced an authored named Michael R. Molnar of The Star of Bethlehem: The Legacy of the Magi. Mr. Molnar claims that "sophisticated computer calculations" show that the Moon eclipsed Jupiter on the night of April 17, 6 BC, the year of Jesus' birth. (Just a bit of information, I always thought that BC meant Before Christ and AD meant After the Death of Christ but it doesn't. Well BC does. AD stands for Anno Domini which is Latin for In The Year of The Lord.) But Adrian's calculations show otherwise. She says, "It was a moonless night in Jerusalem."
She goes on about other studies and suggestions that it could have been Jupiter and Saturn lining up with another star to make a wonderful light show. Maybe even a comet....she goes on and on. It is actually an interesting read but too much for me to relay here so here's the link and you can read the rest if you want http://www.adrianberry.net/art5
The next site Google gives is a story on MSNBC about a theoretical astrophysicist named Grant Mathews of the University of Notre Dame. Grant is a Christian and went to find the answer to my question of this mysterious Star. Well, he didn't do it to for me but for his hopes to reveal the answer to the world. With the help of NASA's databases....maybe I should mention some facts here for those who do not know, the universe is infinite and light travels through it infinitely. If a star explodes, that blast of light goes on forever in space. So that is how smarty scientists are able to track a star's light and they are able to.....well let me just post a video of someone explaining it better than I can: Well I couldn't find one. But trust me, with the right instruments, scientists can find these ever-traveling lights and date them, therefore being able to paint a scene on a particular night. the night in question being the night Jesus was born. But Mr. Mathews was not able to come up with any definite answers either. Just more possible suggestions. He, like Mrs. Berry, supposed it could have been a comet and said that he found writings from Korean and Chinese astronomers of an event about 4 BC which described a comet with no tail that didn't move. Hmmm.... Mathews went on to use biblical references to nail down a moment in time Jesus was probably born in and found two possible supernovas in the right period but stated that the blasts were probably too low on the horizon to be seen. Mathews goes on about a few more novas that could have got attention in the night sky during that time but he believes novas and comets were actually seen as a sign of disaster not a portent of good things to come. For that reason he is going with a likely alignment of planets. Three different occurrences happened during or around that time and the one that sticks out is the April 17th one. Just like Adrian wrote!
Now here's a weird part. Mathews starts talking about the Wise Men. Apparently the Wise Men were of a religion called Zoroastrianism. I just always assumed they were Jewish. Mathews talks about them because he says they were astrologers and would have seen the alignment on April 17th which was in Aries and known that to be a sign of a powerful leader being born. "In fact it would have even meant that the leader was destined to die at an appointed time, which of course would have been significant for the Christ child, and may have been why they brought myrrh, which was an embalming fluid." I'm sure Mary and Joseph dug that gift. "Saturn there would have made whoever was born as a leader a most powerful leader because Saturn had the strength to do it, in their view." Alright, so both the non-believer and the Christian somewhat agree on April 17th 6 BC as Christ's real birthday and the Star the Wise Men seen really just a wonderful alignment of planets that would have been bright and beautiful in the night sky. Let's see what the Devil Worshipers say. Yah, I just said Devil Worshipers.
Easily the weirdest site Google brought me to was www.cuttingedge and I'm pretty sure they worship the Devil. I'm not judging. I just didn't know they really still are out there in such a prominent way. They claim that the facts were out there. That Daniel prophesied about the birth of Christ in very exact numbers so the Jewish people should have been waiting for the day and embracing Jesus as their savior but instead ignored prophecy. This site claims the Devil made them ignore the prophecy giving the Magi Wise Men the opportunity to step in. You really got to read this yourself. Here's the address www.cuttingedge.org/News/n1751.cfm They are pretty much saying that the Magi were able to find the Christ child because they did not ignore the prophecy and and saw the Star in the sky and knew it to be the star that would lead them to Jesus. And they go on to say that if they (cuttingedge and its followers) want to find the AntiChrist, they need to pay attention and not ignore the continued prophecy. Scary stuff! They actually show some remarkable math concerning Daniel's prophecy down to the day of Christ's triumphal entry into Jerusalem, or as we know it, Palm Sunday. I quit reading after a while. It was intriguing that these people exist but I could read no more. I was just interested in the star part.
In conclusion, nobody really knows what actual star light up in the night sky to lead the famous three wise men to the birth place of Jesus. True believers would say that anything is possible with God and it could have been a glowing leading light produced by God and not a real star at all. It could have been an angel. Or it could have been an alignment of planets put into motion by God. Who knows? I don't. I like to think any is possible and nothing is impossible. The Wise Men found Jesus didn't they?
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