{"id":57381,"date":"2025-12-10T15:08:10","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:08:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/57381\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T15:08:10","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T15:08:10","slug":"nasa-scientist-discovers-star-of-bethlehem-wasnt-actually-a-star","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/57381\/","title":{"rendered":"NASA scientist discovers Star of Bethlehem wasn’t actually a star"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the Bible, the Star is what the three wise men followed in the nativity story.Christopher Sharp and Eilidh Farquhar<\/a> Trainee Trends, Showbiz and Lifestyle Writer<\/p>\n

15:01, 10 Dec 2025<\/p>\n

\"ThreeA NASA scientist has claimed to have discovered what the nativity star actually was.(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Around Christmas time, many children in schools across the country hear the story of the nativity, which follows the birth of baby Jesus. In the Bible, the Star of Bethlehem is said to show the three wise men the way to the stable. However, a recent discovery says that what happened may be a bit different.<\/p>\n

While the story details the Star first appearing in the east and marking the location of the son of God, a NASA<\/a> scientist has claimed to have discovered what the Star actually was. While some people may believe it to be a myth after hearing the story over the years, the scientist suggests it did actually exist, just not in the way we think.<\/p>\n

While the marker that the wise men followed is continually referred to as a bright star, planetary scientist Mark Matney instead claims it was a comet. Published in the British Astronomical Association, Matney says a comet <\/a>that was first noticed by Chinese astronomers in 5BC could be a potential candidate.<\/p>\n

This would match up with historians, who say that Jesus may have been born around 5BC or 6BC, reports the Express.<\/a> Additionally, Matney’s study suggests that the comet may have become visible on a June morning in 5BC.<\/p>\n

Therefore, this would mean that people moving south towards Bethlehem would have been able to see the comet going ahead of them. Looking like a marker in the sky, Matney believes this proves evidence of a version of the Star of Matthew at the time.<\/p>\n

\"CometPlanetary scientist Mark Matney believes the star was actually a comet.(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

In his study, Matney said: “A comet candidate has been presented that can explain all aspects of Matthew\u2019s periscope.<\/p>\n

“A comet orbit can be constructed that both fits the Chinese observations and passed very close to Earth in early June.<\/p>\n

“On one particular June day, this comet could have moved in such a way as to appear to \u2018go before\u2019 someone travelling from Jerusalem to Bethlehem and then \u2018stop\u2019 nearly overhead for about two hours.”<\/p>\n

He added: “This unusual comet motion would have occurred during daylight, when ancient people would normally travel\u2026the candidate presented here corresponds to all aspects of both the Chinese observations and the descriptions of the Star in Matthew.”<\/p>\n

Matney isn’t the first scientist to bring a scientific perspective to the Bible and the life of Jesus. Earlier this year, a British anthropologist claimed to have found Jesus’ body.<\/p>\n

Dr Paul Warner said that the body was found with the Ark of the Covenant – which is an ornate, gold-plated wooden chest that housed the two tablets of the Law given to Moses by God – under the Great Pyramid of Egypt.<\/p>\n

\"PyramidAnother scientist believes the body of Jesus is under the Great Pyramid of Egypt.(Image: Getty Images)<\/p>\n

Sharing his findings with the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities, Dr Warner claimed that the antiquities had been hidden inside a double cave deep in pyramids.<\/p>\n

He added that said chest and body of Jesus could be behind a stone block sealing off the southern passageway’s subterranean chamber. However, he did add that a further investigation would be required to confirm his theory.<\/p>\n

Dr Warner, who is not religious<\/a>, adopted a strictly secular approach to his research. He pinpointed the exact location using a “scientific method” and triangulated data from texts of all three Abrahamic religions – Christianity, Judaism and Islam.<\/p>\n

With Christmas day just around the corner, you may start to think about the story of Jesus’ birth and death in a different light.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In the Bible, the Star is what the three wise men followed in the nativity story.Christopher Sharp and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57382,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,5527,837,30949,12441],"class_list":{"0":"post-57381","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bethlehem","8":"tag-bethlehem","9":"tag-bethlehem-headlines","10":"tag-bethlehem-news","11":"tag-christmas","12":"tag-lifestyle","13":"tag-nasa","14":"tag-religion"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57381","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57381"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57381\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57382"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57381"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57381"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57381"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}