Professor of theoretical astrophysics and cosmology, Grand Matthews from the University of Notre Dame in the United States, denied the church tradition that the Magi were brought to Jerusalem by a star. It is reported by Phys.org.
Matthews studied historical, astronomical and biblical records to draw conclusions about the nature of the Star of Bethlehem. So, in his opinion, the Magi learned about the birth of Jesus thanks to the extremely rare planetary alignment.
According to the records that the specialist relies on, at this time the Sun, Jupiter, Moon and Saturn were in the sign of Aries, while Venus was in Pisces, and Mercury and Mars were on the other side, in Taurus. According to his calculations, such a phenomenon will repeat itself only after 500 thousand years.
The star of Bethlehem is a mysterious celestial phenomenon, which, according to the Gospel of Matthew, the wise men called the "star". Seeing her in the east, they decided that a "king of the Jews" had been born, and they came to Jerusalem to worship him.
At the same time, according to the church, the Star of Bethlehem was rather a miraculous rather than an astronomical phenomenon. Having fulfilled her destiny, she disappeared from the sky. At various times, scientists have hypothesized that Halley's comet, the visual conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn, Saturn and Mars, Jupiter and Regulus, played the role of a miraculous sign. Several versions of the outbursts of novae and supernovae were also presented.