The Christmas Star

Ed Downs

Editors note: Author Ed Downs is known to our readers as an active pilot with years of professional aviation experience. But many may not know that Ed is also an enthusiastic amateur astronomer with a passion for astrophysics and history. Christmas 2020 marks a special celestial event which has not taken place since 1621 AD. Of course, Ed observed the event with his large reflector telescope, being able to see both planets simultaneously in great detail. To the unaided eye, these two bright planets merge together, creating a memorable “bright star,” appropriate for our Holiday season. The following article is reprinted from an earlier issue, as Ed shares an understanding of Christmas that spans both science and faith, while seeming to predict what is being referred to as “The Great conjunction.”

Astronomy has a firm connection with the Christmas season, with the Star of Bethlehem (the Christmas Star) playing a major role in virtually every aspect of Holiday decorations, lore, and tradition. The biblical reference in Mathew 2:2 begins our tradition of “the Star in the East” and the holy journey of the three Magi, referred to as “The Three Kings” in late medieval times. It would be hard to imagine the Christmas tradition without this celestial miracle. A quick search in this writer’s biblical concordance comes up with no less than 10 references to the stars. Many biblical historians believe the Magi were astrologers, skilled in many arts and sciences, having familiarity with the prophecies of Daniel. While today astrology is considered as a completely different subject than astronomy, they were once one and the same, and perhaps the oldest of all scientific understandings by ancient civilizations. Indeed, the stars are an integral part of the Holiday season.

Biblical historians continue to try and verify, scientifically, that the Star of Bethlehem existed in a physical sense that can be verified through the science of astronomy and astrophysics. This writer is intrigued by such research and a great fan of biblical archeology, but my research disclosed that I was treading on disputed ground. To millions, the reality is that the “Star” was a miracle contained in the Word. As such, it is absolute truth, not needing proof. Elements of the Christian faith even disagree as to the meaning of the “Star.” To challenge faith-based views with physical evidence is, in fact, insulting and upsetting to many. It is not the intent of this writer to do either. But, as a Christian with a telescope, this writer cannot help but look to the heavens in admiration of a God that created everything in an instant. Astrophysicists know this as the “singularity” while we common folk think in terms of the “Big Bang.”

Those who search for the Star of Bethlehem run into a variety of challenges. The calendar, as we know it, did not exist, and competing calendars flourished. The precise historical birthday of Jesus is not known. Our current celebration was established centuries after the Crucifixion. Astronomers (astrologers?) of the time did not have hard drives into which data could be stored, and scientific records that might have existed were destroyed when the remarkable documents contained in the Library of Alexandria were lost through a series of devastating wars covering a period of nearly 600 years. But, today’s computers can roll back time. We can see that the time of Christ’s birth did contain some unusual conjunctions of planets, especially between Jupiter, Saturn and Venus, meaning they were so close together that they may well have appeared as a single, new, bright “Star.” This conjunction would have appeared in the constellation Leo, known as the “Lion of Judah,” long associated with the coming of a King. A passing comet could certainly have been viewed as the “Star” and may have seemed to have stayed in one position, but comets were traditionally viewed during ancient times as “the coming of bad things” and not likely to be associated with such a holy event. Additionally, records that do exist make no mentions of a comet, something that would have “made the 10:00 news” of the day.

It is interesting to note that Chinese records (avid and skilled astronomers) of the time do speak of a sudden bright light in the sky that lasted for months. This could well have been a supernova, the sudden and explosive death of a star. A supernova occurs when a star’s central thermonuclear core burns out, or runs out of fuel. The core shuts down suddenly and the enormous mass of the star collapses in on itself. The unimaginable heat and energy caused by this collapse creates an enormous explosion that is billions of times brighter than our own sun. This would most certainly have been observed in all parts of the ancient world and recorded. But only Chinese accounts survive. One might think that the explosive death of a star is hardly a good omen for the birth of a Savior, but think again. The death of a star is actually a birth! The heat and energy expelled by a single supernova causes massive molecular changes to occur within its own atomic structure, creating every known chemical element. These elements are cast out into the universe as building blocks for new stars, planets and life forms, like us.

Speculation persists, but for this amateur astronomer, a look through my telescope is all that is needed to fire up the imagination. Imagine you are standing on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, looking into the night skies with a powerful telescope. Your view falls upon a beautiful open star cluster known as M22, 2000 light years from earth. With thousands of stars huddled together by gravity, it is now known that nearly all of those stars will have planets, and one of those planets might have an advanced life form that is looking back at you at that very moment. But you would not see them looking back, because the light from that planet took 2000 years to reach you, so you would see their living history, in real-time. And they would not see you, but would see our planet’s living history as it was 2000 years ago. Our M22 friends might see a big gathering on the shores of a lake, with a man in a robe serving fish and bread, followed by a speech from a mount. They would see this in real, living, time. And imagine, He was the only one in that crowd that knew we would be celebrating His birthday, over 2000 years later. Happy Birthday, Jesus.