When I was a child, I was always excited about putting the Star on top of our Christmas tree. The story of the Christmas star is found in the Book of Matthew:
Now after Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, wise men from the East came to Jerusalem, saying, Where is He who has been born King of the Jews? For we have seen His star in the East [or at its rising[11]] and have come to worship Him. When Herod the king heard this, he was troubled, and all Jerusalem with him. And when he had gathered all the chief priests and scribes of the people together, he inquired of them where the Christ was to be born.[12]
Then Herod, when he had secretly called the wise men, determined from them what time the star appeared. And he sent them to Bethlehem and said, Go and search carefully for the young Child, and when you have found Him, bring back word to me, that I may come and worship Him also. When they heard the king, they departed; and behold, the star which they had seen in the East went before them, till it came and stood over where the young Child was. When they saw the star, they rejoiced with exceedingly great joy.[16]
As a child, I thought that everyone saw the star, but as you read the story, apparently this star was only visible to the Wise Men from the east. After all, Herod wasn’t aware of the star. In a previous post, some astronomers discussed when this star must have appeared:
So, the question arises as to what star might have appeared around 6 BC. A clay tablet from Babylon (the Almanac of Sippa) in the British Museum tells of a great astronomical event. Jupiter and Saturn aligned in 7 BC. Astronomer Michael Molnar tells us that these planets were known to play the central role in kingship, or emporership. Jupiter tells of the coming of a new king. Saturn tells of the old ruler. When these 2 planets aligned closely in the sky, it meant the change of one ruler to another. Traditionally, the constellation of Pisces was the sign of Israel. These 3 objects aligned 3 times in the year 7 BC. This happens every 820 years, so it is a very unusual event. Jupiter also was eclipsed by the moon, and occurred in the East, which would be April 17, 6 BC. Molnar believes this is the date of the birth of Christ. It is an extremely unusual event, and would have been greatly noticed by the Magi.
According to these astronomers, these wise men were from Iran and were members of the Zoroastrian religion, a religion that pre-dates Christ and is still practiced by a small minority in Iran. Of course there is another apocryphal story that says the Wise men came from China. Whatever you think of these stories, the fact is that the star wasn’t really visible to most of the world.
In the Book of Mormon, however, the star is seen by hundreds, and fulfilled a prophecy by Samuel the Lamanite. In 3 Nephi 1,
4 And it came to pass that in the commencement of the ninety and second year, behold, the prophecies of the prophets began to be fulfilled more fully; for there began to be greater signs and greater miracles wrought among the people.
5 But there were some who began to say that the time was past for the words to be fulfilled, which were spoken by Samuel, the Lamanite.
…
15 And it came to pass that the words which came unto Nephi were fulfilled, according as they had been spoken; for behold, at the going down of the sun there was no darkness; and the people began to be astonished because there was no darkness when the night came.
…
19 And it came to pass that there was no darkness in all that night, but it was as light as though it was mid-day. And it came to pass that the sun did rise in the morning again, according to its proper order; and they knew that it was the day that the Lord should be born, because of the sign which had been given.
20 And it had come to pass, yea, all things, every whit, according to the words of the prophets.
21 And it came to pass also that a new star did appear, according to the word.
So, my physics and astronomy friends, how would you explain this event? What natural events would have happened to cause light to appear at night “as though it was mid-day?” I mean I know that the sun doesn’t set in Alaska in the summer, but assuming this took place in the Americas (or even in the Malay Peninsula), how can such an event be explained scientifically?
Wheat & Tares 
My seminary teacher said it might have been a supernova. I don’t know if he had a background in physics or astronomy. That said, isn’t the definition of a miracle an event that can’t be explained scientifically?
Joel – I had heard the supernova thing as well. Don’t necessarily subscribe to the miracles vs science thing though…
I don’t qualify as a physicist, astronomer, or any other kind of scientist, and so I begin here by ruling out any kind of rational, scientific explanation. I accept and value this story from Matthew’s Gospel as a metaphorical explanation: The Light (Christ) has come into the world and from the start it attracts non-Israelites (gentiles and every other kind of foreigner) to “come and see.” Of course, just because it’s not a literal, factual event doesn’t mean it’s not true.
Supernova could have done it if close enough, and would also have resulted in them seeing a bright new star for some time afterwards (which they did).
I’m not an astrophysicist, and my query would be whether a supernova close enough to do that would do it for one night only before being reduced to a bright star status.
The problem with much of the speculation is that the ancients kept detailed astronomical records of what they observed. During the applicable time period, records were kept in Egypt, Mesopotamia and China. There is nothing dramatic during the period of Christ’s birth.
Remember that Matthew was written to justify Jesus’ divinity. At that time, you showed divine favor by citing events in the lifetime of the figure that indicated divine favor, even if non-historical. That is likely the case here.
Would Middle Eastern people have seen the supernova too?
Not necessarily. Depending where it was, and where the BoM people were.
But if the Supernova lasted ~ 8 hours and was bright enough to make the sky as mid-day, I think this is hard for the rest of the planet not to see.
Supernovas don’t fade substantially after a few hours. They typically have a a period of substantial light for several weeks or months.
MH, well there are stars visible in the southern hemisphere that are not visible in the northern hemisphere and vice versa. Whether it would be visible in Iran say, would depend where it was relative to the earth. It needn’t be in the same relative position as the sun to the earth’s axis.
On the brightness, there’d be a very bright burst, short lasting I gather, of high energy, at the initial explosion of the red dwarf, but then a continuing lesser brightness of weeks/ months – usually seen as an exceptionally bright star, but not enough to be as day, unless especially close, and if that close, surely the high energy of the initial burst would cause some damage? As well as the daylight then lasting more than one night only, as per my earlier comment. So, if it was a supernova it would seem to have been Custom built perhaps…
The late University of Minnesota astronomer Karlis Kaufmanis (1910-2003) subscribed to the “Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces” theory and delivered, repeatedly, an <a href="https://sites.google.com/site/astrologicalstarofbethlehem/"immensely popular lecture about it every year around Christmastime. IIRC (I heard this as an undergrad nearly 30 years ago), he notes that the Magi were probably Jewish astrologers in exile in Babylon, influenced by Zoroastrianism.
Thus, he discounts the popular notion that the star guided them by hanging over the manger, as it’s often portrayed, since it clearly took them awhile to get there.
When they arrived, they said “We have seen his star in the East,” although they came from the East, thus they weren’t following the star but merely took it as a signal that the event had occurred. Matthew states that the star went before them (2:9, “lo, the star, which they saw in the east, went before them, till it came and stood over where the young child was”). Either Matthew was embellishing for the sake of the story (I am not a scriptural literalist) or there was a comet or nova or somesuch that led them to the then-current location of the Holy Family.
It had probably been some time since the appearance of the sign to the Magi, which Herod “diligently inquired of the wise men” (2:16), although the length of time is not really known. Nor do we know to what extent Herod tried to cover all the bases and give himself a margin of error. We only know that he ordered the execution of all of the male infants aged two years and under, in Bethlehem and vicinity.
So, I think there were probably two “stars.” One was an astrological phenomenon noted by the Magi, “Jupiter and Saturn in Pisces,” which triggered their journey and was known to the Jewish astrological tradition as a sign of the King or Messiah. The other was most likely an astronomical phenomenon like a comet or supernova, by the scriptural record very intense and bright in the Western Hemisphere but not at all, or very limited, in the Eastern.
This is problematic. It’s pretty easy to posit a phenomenon visible in the Northern but not the Southern Hemisphere, but due to the Earth’s rotation, almost any phenomenon visible in the Western becomes visible in the Eastern within 12 hours. The north-south displacement of Bethlehem/Jerusalem and any plausible BoM location isn’t really large enough for a daytime-bright WH phenom to slide under the horizon by the time it rotates around to Jerusalem. Bethlehem is at about 32 deg. north latitude, the same as El Paso, TX. Positing a Sorensonian Central American BoM location hypothesis, that’s only about 18 degrees removed – San Salvador is at about 14 deg. N latitude. Moving south, Caracas is at 10 deg. N and Quito is on the Equator. To get a 90 degree offset in latitude, you have to locate the BoM lands at Tierra del Fuego. 🙂
So – outright miracle? Alien spaceship? A “being clothed in white whose brightness exceeded that of the sun”?
(NB: A hypothetical third, small, localized, Eastern Hemi phenomenon “going before” the Magi is also a possibility.)