Public DomainStar of Bethlehem, painted by Elihu Vedder circa 1879.The Star of Bethlehem has long been a topic of debate and mystery within the world of astronomy.Based on biblical descriptions, the star that was storied to have guided the magi, or wise men, to the manger of baby Jesus didnt behave like a typical star in the night sky. Scientists have struggled to positively connect the star to any specific astronomical event.Now, however, a NASA planetary scientist has proposed a new theory: The Star of Bethlehem was actually a comet. The Star Of Bethlehem May Have Been A CometNASA planetary scientist Mark Matney recently published his study about the Star of Bethlehem in the Journal of the British Astronomical Association. To support his theory that the celestial body was a comet, Matney turned to astronomical accounts from ancient China.He found one document that described a strange object that appeared in the sky in 5 B.C.E. and was visible for 70 days. From there, Matney mapped out a potential orbit that the star may have followed.Alessandro Bianconi/Wikimedia CommonsNASA scientist Mark Matney posits that the Star of Bethlehem was actually a comet that takes millions of years to orbit the Sun.His research began back when he was still in college. He was working at a planetarium at the time, and it was during a Christmas sky show that his theory came about. The show noted that the Star of Bethlehem was unlike any other observed celestial bodies, which typically rise in the east and set in the west. In the Bible, the star was described to have ascended from the south and remained still for hours. Matney realized that the entire story may be mythical, but he also knew there was one object that could behave in such a way: a comet.Using the description in the ancient Chinese account, Matney concluded that the comet would have appeared as if it were moving ahead of someone in the sky if they were walking from Jerusalem to Bethlehem, as the wise men did. Furthermore, if the comet were traveling at just the right speed, direction, and distance from Earth, it would look as if it had paused overhead for about two hours.So, could this supposed comet have actually been the Star of Bethlehem?The Comet Of Bethlehem Theory Is Not Universally AcceptedNot everyone agrees with Matneys conclusion. Astrophysicist Ralph Neuhuser from Friedrich Schiller University Jena in Germany told Scientific American that the Chinese source may be misleading. The older the record, in general, the less information is left, Neuhuser, who was uninvolved in Matneys research, told the outlet. Thanhouser Films/Wikimedia CommonsA poster for the 1912 film Star of Bethlehem.Matney, while agreeing that ancient texts are not guaranteed to be reliable, noted that Chinese documentation has proven to be, in general, pretty accurate. In the past, astronomical records from China have correctly described stellar explosions and the path of Halleys Comet. My goal here was to not prove that this was the Star of Bethlehem, said Matney, but to show that the idea that no astronomical object can behave this way we can no longer say that.After reading about the theory that the Star of Bethlehem was actually a comet, go inside the apocalyptic frenzy inspired by Halleys Comet in 1910. Then, learn about the global sensation of the Hale-Bopp Comet.The post A NASA Scientist Believes The Star Of Bethlehem Was Likely A Comet appeared first on All That's Interesting.