Astrophysicist to present Christmas Star evidence | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame






	
	





  	Skip To Content
	Skip To Navigation
	Skip To Search






  
  
    University of Notre Dame

    
      
      Notre Dame News

      
      
    


    
    
      
        
        
        	
	Experts
	ND in the News
	Subscribe
	About Us
	


      
        
          
          
          
          
          
        

      


      
    


    
    
      	 Home
	 Contact
	 Search
	
          
          
            
            
          
          Menu
        
        


      
        
          
          
          
          
          
        

      

    

  

  
  

  

  
    	Home › 
	News › 
	Astrophysicist to present Christmas Star evidence


    
      
        
          Astrophysicist to present Christmas Star evidence

          
            
              
                
                Published: December 09, 2007
              

              
                Author: Gail Hinchion Mancini
              

              







          

          
          
          

          
        
        
        
          

Grant Mathews is a theoretical astrophysicist and cosmologist at the University of Notre Dame whose research addresses such unknowns as the age of the galaxy or at what rate the universe is expanding.

He also is intrigued by one of the enduringseasonalmysteries, namely, the nature of the Star of Bethlehem, said to have led the three Magi to the birthplace of Christ.

While neither Mathews nor anyone else has solved the puzzle, he has applied the tools of modern astrophysics to search for evidence that some astronomical event occurred during the time frame of Jesusbirth.

An increasingly rich archive of information, stored in a variety of astronomical databases, has the potential to shed new light on this ancient puzzle,he said.

Mathews will give four public presentations of his research, titledWhat and When was the Christmas Star?in the Digital Visualization Theatre of Notre Dames Jordan Hall of Science at 7 p.m. on Dec. 15 (Saturday); 3 p.m. on Dec. 16 (Sunday); 7 p.m. on Dec. 22 (Saturday); and 3 p.m. on Dec. 23 (Sunday).

His investigative method is built around a key set of questions: When did the event occur? Who might have seen it? And what were its characteristics, such as color, brightness and the length of the occurrence?

In this case, thewhenis spelled out in the Bible. The appearance of a similar sounding event in ancient Chinese and Korean texts indicates that others from various cultures also observed a phenomenon.

Mathews cross-references these clues against increasingly sophisticated databases collected by the NASA Space Science Institute, including Hubble Space telescope spectra and images from the X-ray observatory satellite called Chandra.

His latest studies involve possible archival evidence of a supernova or nova, which could correspond to the event, also recorded in the Far East. Cross-correlating Chinese astronomy records with NASA databases, he has identified two novae that are good candidates.

These may have occurred, along with a very rare alignment of the planets, which would have indicated to the Magi a special birth and a change of regimes in Judea,he said.These possible explanations are new in that they are based upon archives and imagery only recently available.

_ Contact: Grant Mathews,_  " gmathews@nd.edu ":mailto:gmathews@nd.edu  __

TopicID: 25767

        

        
        
          
            

          

        
      
      
    
  
  
    	Home
	Experts
	ND in the News
	Subscribe
	About Us


  

  
  
    
     
  
  

  
  
    
      	For the Media
	Contact


    
            
    
      
	Office of Public Affairs and Communications


      Notre Dame News

      
        
          
            500 Grace Hall
 
            Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA
          
          
          
          
        

        
          	 Facebook
	 Twitter
	 Instagram
	 YouTube
	 Pinterest


        
      

      
© 2022 University of Notre Dame

    
    
      

        
      
      
        
          	Search
	Mobile App
	News
	Events
	Visit
	Accessibility


        
        
          	 Facebook
	 Twitter
	 Instagram
	 YouTube
	 LinkedIn