The Oneida Daily Dispatch (Oneida, NY)
A Star in the East
In the Christmas story, a group of magi
( MAY- jie), or wise men, followed a bright star to find the Christ child.
Magi were early astronomers*. They recognized the positions of all the stars. When a newstar appeared in the sky, they knew it.
They also believed in astrology ( uhSTRAW- luh- jee), or the idea that the positions of the stars affect people’s lives. Scientists no longer believe this.
When the magi saw a new star appear in the eastern sky, they believed it was a symbol that a new leader of the Jewish people had been born.
Astronomers’ ideas
For hundreds of years, astronomers have been trying to figure out an explanation for the Christmas star. No one knows for sure what it was.
Part of the difficulty in answering this question is that no one knows exactly when the magi went on their journey.
The top scientific explanations for the star include:
• a supernova
• a comet
• several planets coming so close to each other that they seemed like one bright star.
Stars and supernovas
A star is a giant ball of gas. It stays together because different forces are in balance.
Nuclear explosions from inside the star push out. At the same time, the mass, or weight, of the star pushes in. The two forces balance each other.
When the star grows old, it starts running out of nuclear fuel. It stops creating as many explosions.
With less force pushing out but the same gravity pulling in, the star begins to collapse.
The pressure of the collapsing star heats up the core of the star to about 100 billion degrees Fahrenheit. Finally, it becomes so hot, it blows up. The exploding burst of light can appear as a super- bright star in the sky, or supernova.
Supernova fireworks
When a star explodes, it creates shock waves of glowing gas spreading out into space. We can still see the glowing remains of supernovas from star explosions millions of years ago. Sometimes they’re so bright that people on Earth can see themwith the naked eye.