What was the actual Star of Bethlehem?

There are so many different answers to this question. Today, there will be another one on the radio starting at 4:00 p.m., PST.


Dec. 22.





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What was the actual Star of Bethlehem?
For details on possible scientific explanations of the star of Bethlehem, see the source. Here is an excerpt:








In December, 1603, Kepler watched a conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn that took place in Sagittarius in the morning sky. (Note: this was a single conjunction.) The conjunction was astrologically important because it took place in a constellation that was one of the points of the Fiery Trigon, and was to be followed the next autumn by a triangular grouping of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn -- a fiery triangle in the Fiery Trigon. As an omen this was surpassed only by a comet, and many astrologers in 1603 predicted that a comet would be produced by the planets' close proximity late in 1604.


...


On October 10 a new star, as bright as Jupiter, was spotted essentially between Jupiter and Saturn, which themselves were only 9 degrees apart. Kepler observed it carefully until it faded into the sun's glare the following year, and later wrote a book De Stella Nova in Pede Serpentarti (About the New Star in the Serpent's Foot).





While writing this book, Kepler came across a work by Laurence Suslyga of Poland that argued that Christ was born in 4 B.C. Kepler immediately noticed that this was shortly after a triple conjunction that he calculated had occurred in 7 B.C., and wondered if there was a connection. In 1614 he published his conclusions: the triple conjunction of 7 B.C. was followed by a massing of Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn in 6 B.C., and just as the conjunction and massing of 1603 4 had produced a new star, so the events of 7 6 B.C. had produced a miraculous nova, and that nova was the Star of Bethlehem. The biblical triple conjunction took place in Pisces, but the massing that followed took palce in Aries -- one of the fiery signs -- just as the massing of 1604 had also taken place in a fiery sign.





Kepler believed that the star over Bethlehem was a nova placed there specifically to alert and guide the magi. He wrote, "I do not doubt but that God would have condescended to cater to the credulity of the Chaldeans."
Reply:STARS ARE STATIONARY, THEY DON'T MOVE LIKE THE ONE


IN THE NEW TESTAMENT FABLE!!!
Reply:It was actually a comet, not a star. That's why it was present just for the event.
Reply:According to Origen, the star was in "the nature of those celestial bodies which appear at times, such as comets, or those meteors which resemble beams of wood, or beards, or wine jars."





In 1614, German astronomer Johannes Kepler determined that a series of three conjunctions of the planets Jupiter and Saturn occurred in 7 BC and linked this event to the Star of Bethlehem. Although conjunctions were important in astrology, Kepler was not thinking in astrological terms. He argued that a planetary conjunction could create a nova, which he linked to the Star of Bethlehem.
Reply:A very good question, and one that can probably NOT be answered. Chinese astronomers of about that time recorded a nova (exploding star) that appeared at about that time and lasted for about 70 days (would fit most of the Biblical references also)
Reply:nope