Australian astronomer: 'Christmas Star' actually occurred in June

By JPOST.COM STAFF
A complex, scientific analysis conducted by an Australian astronomer has found that the "Christmas Star" was an actual astronomical event which did not occur in December as is the common belief, but rather in June, the Telegraph reported on Tuesday. "We have software that can recreate exactly the night sky as it was at any point in the last several thousand years," Dave Reneke, formerly the chief lecturer at the Port Macquarie Observatory in New South Wales, told the paper. "We used it to go back to the time when Jesus was born, according to the Bible," he continued. "Venus and Jupiter became very close in the year 2 BC and they would have appeared to be one bright beacon of light." "We are not saying this was definitely the Christmas star - but it is the strongest explanation for it of any I have seen so far," Reneke added. "There's no other explanation that so closely matches the facts we have from the time." If Reneke's theory is correct, Jesus would have been born on June 17, not December 25. "This could well have been what the three wise men interpreted as a sign. They could easily have mistaken it for one bright star," he said.