The Great Christ Comet
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Apparent Magnitude on October 3, 6 BC, if first observed on September 30, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 3, 6 BC, if first observed on December 10–17, 7 BC
3
-12.5
-12.3
-11.3
-10.2
-9.9
-9.6
4
-16.1
-15.9
-14.7
-13.5
-13.1
-12.5
5
-19.7
-19.4
-18.0
-16.7
-16.2
-15.5
TABLE 10.4 The Christ Comet’s apparent magnitude on October 3, 6 BC.
From September 30 to October 3, the brightness of the comet would have been extraordinary.54 If we assume an average brightness slope (n=4), the coma would have been at least -12.5 in apparent magnitude before dawn on October 3.55 In length it would have grown from about the Moon’s diameter to over 2½ times that. The concentrated brightness around the nucleus would probably have been especially stunning, and indeed visible during the daytime. It may have given the impression that the face of the celestial Virgin’s baby was especially glorious. This baby in Virgo’s womb was truly magnificent! The comet had quickly gone from being a glorious evening star to being an astonishingly “bright morning star” (Rev. 22:16; cf. 2 Pet. 1:19) and indeed an afternoon star! Over these days, the comet was increasingly moving away from the Sun—for example, from September 30 to October 3 it moved more than 5 degrees further away from the solar disk. The Christ Comet, like the 373–372 BC comet56 and Comet Tebbutt of 1861, would unquestionably have cast shadows.
It must soon have become apparent to the Magi that the cometary coma in Virgo’s belly was playing the part of the Jewish Messiah and was signaling the fulfillment of the oracles of Isaiah 7:14 and 9:1–7. In addition, since the comet as a whole apparently looked like a scepter at this stage of its apparition, the conclusion that Numbers 24:17 was being fulfilled would quickly have become obvious. From the moment that the Magi came to the conclusion that the comet was at this time announcing the Messiah’s coming, they would have anticipated that the celestial pregnancy would culminate in a birth scene that would coincide with the Messiah’s nativity. Moreover, they would have been hungry to learn all they could concerning the Messiah as prophesied in the Hebrew Scriptures. In addition, around this time the Magi may have begun planning their trip to Judea to worship the Messiah.
Growing Baby
According to our orbit, the baby (i.e., coma) seemed to move slightly upwards within Virgo’s womb until October 6/7,57 from which point it began to descend slowly (see fig. 10.24).58 However, right up until October 14 the comet remained inside a set area within Virgo’s belly.59 The stability of the cometary baby within Virgo’s womb was possible only because of a remarkable synchronism between the movement of Earth on its orbit and that of the comet on its orbit. Each day the comet could be seen in a darker sky, because more of the comet and Virgo were rising above the horizon in advance of the Sun. From October 5, the whole baby could be seen in a completely dark sky (i.e., when the Sun was 18 or more degrees below the horizon).
As the coma grew in size each day (from about 1 degree in length on October 2 to almost 6 degrees on October 15), the brightness would have been distributed over a larger area, diluting it. Of course, the darkening of the background sky counterbalanced this effect. More important, the unusual geometry of the comet relative to the Sun and Earth was intensifying the apparent magnitude beyond what calculations based on the absolute magnitude would suggest. Every day the comet came closer and closer to the Earth-Sun line (i.e., its “phase angle” increased), boosting the brightness of the comet due to the phenomenon of “forward-scattering.” On September 30 the “phase angle” of the nucleus was 84 degrees; on October 11 it was 133 degrees, which gave the comet a 1-magnitude boost.60 Nevertheless, the increase in the comet’s size may well have caused it to fade from daytime visibility more quickly than its apparent magnitude values and phase angle would suggest.
Until October 11/12 the comet’s apparent brightness was dropping (the drop was in the order of about 2 or 3 magnitudes from September 30 to October 11/12). Thereafter the apparent magnitude began to build again as the comet neared Earth.61
As the cometary coma rose on October 11, it may have been backlighting part of the edge of the 27.5-day-old waning crescent Moon (magnitude -9.41).
The remarkable growth of the coma-baby in Virgo’s womb is reminiscent of the dramatic growth of Comet Holmes as a result of its outburst late in 2007 (fig. 10.25).62 However, while a major outburst event cannot be ruled out in the case of the Christ Comet, there is probably no need to make recourse to such to explain the spectacular enlargement of the coma. The fact that the massive, productive comet had just made its closest pass by the Sun and was rapidly approaching Earth is probably sufficient to explain the stunning expansion.
FIG. 10.25 Comet Holmes on November 2, 2007. Image credit: Ginger Mayfield/Wikimedia Commons.
The whole time the coma was growing, so also was the tail. And, of course, the longer it grew, the earlier it rose in the east each night. On October 2 the cometary scepter was something like 110 degrees long. On October 14 it was over 155 degrees in length. By that time the tail was starting to rise around sunset and so was visible for the whole night. When the coma rose toward the end of the night, the massive comet must have been an awesome sight to behold. To Near Eastern astrologers probably attuned to perceive significance in the direction to which the tail pointed, it must have seemed remarkable that this extraordinarily long and ever-lengthening tail was pointing right to the western horizon.
The Baby Drops
From October 7 to 14 the cometary baby dropped slightly within Virgo’s womb, even as it grew. This downward movement was due to the fact that the comet’s orbit was straightening out after its hairpin turn around the Sun at perihelion and the fact that the comet was increasingly heading toward Earth. The more the orbit straightened out, the faster the comet seemed to descend within Virgo. The momentum of the descent appeared to build with every passing day, but in the first few days there was relatively little movement. Indeed, while the coma was descending within the context of the rising fixed stars of Virgo, the nucleus itself was technically still rising in altitude (i.e., increasing in its apparent distance from the Sun) up to October 14, when it reached its highest point in the predawn eastern sky (it was about 23½ degrees above the horizon at sunrise). By October 14 the comet coma’s sunward side had descended (relative to Virgo’s stars) to the level at which it had been on September 29.
Any intensification of the apparent magnitude of the comet as it came within about 0.5 AU of Earth (not to mention the steadily increasing brightness boost due to the forward-scattering effect as the phase angle grew) would have been offset by the continued growth of the coma, which caused the brightness of the comet to be more broadly distributed and hence less stunning. By October 11 the coma was probably something like 4 degrees long and at least -10.8 in apparent magnitude.63 At this magnitude such a coma would have stood out in sharp contrast from the ancient night sky.64 The baby’s face may have seemed especially bright.
Virgo’s Labor Begins
While we cannot know for sure exactly where the nucleus was within the coma, it seems safe to conclude that about 10% of the coma was on the sunward side of the nucleus. This is important because it determines when the coma would have been perceived to be pushing down on Virgo’s cervix/pelvic floor. Accordingly, October 15 emerges as the most likely date for the beginning of Virgo’s “active labor.” At that point the coma’s major axis (i.e., the length of the baby) was something like 6 degrees. Since there was general agreement throughout the Greco-Roman world and the Near East (Egypt and Babylon) at the turn of the ages regarding the level of Virgo’s groin relative to the stars of the constellation, the interpretation of the nativity scen
e transpiring in Virgo as described by Revelation 12:1–5 would have been widely shared.
At that time the comet’s apparent magnitude was probably somewhere between -10.7 and -14.3 (table 10.5).65 A 6-degree-long elliptical (oval) coma of this apparent magnitude would have been a striking feature of the night sky in the ancient Near East.66 With such a large cometary baby at that location within Virgo, those watching the celestial drama in the eastern sky naturally assigned great pain to Virgo.67 The slow descent of the cometary baby over the next few days, coupled with its still-increasing size, would have reinforced the perception that the labor was painful. October 17 and 18 were probably perceived to be the climax of Virgo’s pain, since it was at that point that the widest part of the baby was passing through her vaginal opening.
Magnitude Slope
(value of n)
Apparent Magnitude on October 15, 6 BC, if first observed on November 21–28, 8 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 15, 6 BC, if first observed on February 5, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 15, 6 BC, if first observed on May 29, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 15, 6 BC, if first observed on August 17, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 15, 6 BC, if first observed on September 30, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 15, 6 BC, if first observed on December 10–17, 7 BC
3
-11.5
-11.3
-10.3
-9.2
-8.9
-8.6
4
-14.3
-14.1
-12.9
-11.7
-11.3
-10.7
5
-17.1
-16.8
-15.4
-14.1
-13.6
-12.9
TABLE 10.5 The Christ Comet’s apparent magnitude on October 15, 6 BC.
Remarkably, the throne of Virgo had suddenly been transformed into a birthing chair! (See fig. 10.26.)
FIG. 10.26 Virgo begins active labor on October 15, 6 BC. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
This extraordinary size of the coma was due to the largeness of the comet nucleus, the productive nature of the comet, its intrinsic brightness, the small perihelion distance, and the fact that the nucleus on October 15–17 was only about 0.4–0.3 AU from Earth (roughly the distance of Mercury from the Sun). All of these factors had to come together perfectly for the extraordinary phenomenon in Virgo to occur as it did.
FIG. 10.27 October 15, 6 BC: What was happening in outer space at the point when Virgo commenced her labor. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
The Meteor Storm
From October 15 to 19 Virgo was in active labor, giving birth to the child. Relative to the stars of Virgo, the coma was clearly descending. From the 16th to the 19th, more and more of the cometary baby was rising above the horizon after 80 Virginis each morning. However, until the whole baby was completely below the level of her vaginal opening, the baby had not been born. The birth occurred on October 20. During these days the baby was growing dramatically; each morning it was 12–17% larger than the previous morning. The morning of October 15, when labor began, corresponded with Tishratu 1 in Babylon (the month had begun the previous evening). The first day of the Hebrew month of Heshvan probably also coincided with October 15 (although it is possible that it was delayed until the 16th).
On October 19 there was a dramatic new development in the grand heavenly play: radiating from the upper section of the tail of the serpentine constellation figure Hydra (the longest constellation in the sky), next to Virgo’s left leg, was a fantastic meteor storm.68 A full one-third of the stars of the sky seemed to be ejected from their places (Rev. 12:4). Because the radiant of the meteor storm was relatively low on the eastern horizon, the stars looked like they were being thrown toward the earth. Then the star in the tip of Hydra’s tail (π Hydrae) rose to the point that it was level with the horizon. It was an unforgettable moment—there was the serpentine dragon, having just displayed his rage and power, looking like he was standing up on the earth.
The fact that this great 6 BC Hydrid meteor storm occurred when Virgo’s cometary baby had almost fully emerged from her womb seemed to endow the events in that part of the sky with special significance. The association between the two was hard to avoid because much of Hydra (in particular the lower part of its tail) was located next to Virgo, to her south. The apparent throwing of stars from one-third of the sky to the earth by Hydra’s tail seemed to add a new dimension to the grand narrative centered around the cometary coma. In this context, what Hydra was doing seemed ominous—the Chaos Monster was evidently furious and extremely dangerous. He was about to pounce on the unsuspecting baby and try to seize and eat it as soon as it had fully emerged from its mother’s womb. It was a disturbing scene on the eve of the messianic child’s birth.
The comet’s apparent magnitude at the time was at least -9.2 (if n=3), -11.0 (if n=4), or -13.0 (if n=5) (see table 10.6).69 At this stage the comet was very close to the Earth-Sun line (the phase angle of the nucleus was 155 degrees) and this would have boosted the brightness of the sunward side of the coma by 3 magnitudes beyond what our figures suggest.70 Unquestionably, the cometary coma would have been clearly visible in the sky of ancient Babylon. Nevertheless, the massive size of the coma (perhaps approaching 10 degrees in length) meant that the brightness was not quite as striking as the resultant apparent magnitude and forward-scattering brightness boost calculations might suggest. If the radiant of the meteor storm on the eve of the birth of the cometary baby was lower on Hydra’s tail—that is, closer to γ (Gamma) Hydrae than Corvus/the Raven—that would suggest that the cometary light at that stage was not sufficiently bright to bleach out the glory of the meteors in that third of the sky. Of course, if the radiant was high on Hydra’s tail, that is, close to Corvus/the Raven, for example, at HIP59373, then the cometary coma might have been below the horizon when the radiant was above it.
Magnitude Slope
(value of n)
Apparent Magnitude on October 19, 6 BC, if first observed on November 21–28, 8 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 19, 6 BC, if first observed on February 5, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 19, 6 BC, if first observed on May 29, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 19, 6 BC, if first observed on August 17, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 19, 6 BC, if first observed on September 30, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 19, 6 BC, if first observed on December 10–17, 7 BC
3
-12.1
-11.9
-10.9
-9.8
-9.5
-9.2
4
-14.6
-14.4
-13.2
-12.0
-11.6
-11.0
5
-17.2
-16.9
-15.5
-14.2
-13.7
-13.0
TABLE 10.6 The Christ Comet’s apparent magnitude on October 19, 6 BC.
At this point the comet’s tail was extraordinarily long, stretching across most of the dome of the sky.71 The previous evening, the 18th, the tail was already well above the eastern horizon when the Sun set. The cometary scepter must have been an awesome sight to behold.
The Magi and others who were paying attention to celestial events must have felt the tension of the scene on October 19. The momentum of the coma’s descent was such that it must have seemed obvious that the baby would be born the next day (although, as seasoned astronomers, they would have been well aware that comets do not always do what is expected!). Now that Hydra was ready to pounce, what would happen when the baby emerged from Virgo’s womb? The skies did not get any more gripping than this!
When the Sun set and the tail could be seen, it would have been apparent to the Magi that the tail would stretch all the w
ay across the sky when the coma rose at the end of the night.
The Birth Scene
When Virgo rose on the morning of October 20, it was clear that the momentous occasion had come: the cometary baby had finally been fully delivered. The comet had jumped over 4 degrees in one day, and now the side of the coma nearest the horizon was located just over 2 degrees from λ Virginis, the star that the Greeks associated with Virgo’s left foot but that Revelation 12:1 seems to associate with both of her feet. In the Babylonian and Hebrew luni-solar calendars, with sunset-to-sunset days, the date was Tashritu 6 and Heshvan 6 (or 5) respectively.
The coma was now possibly about 11 degrees long,72 occupying the entire region from Virgo’s feet to a few degrees below 80 Virginis. The whole coma was now well below Virgo’s vaginal opening. Indeed the baby did not begin to rise above the horizon until after Spica. Judging by the widespread conceptualization of Virgo’s lower half at that time, the baby was now born (fig. 10.28). The minimum brightness of the comet was apparent magnitude -11.2 (table 10.7 )73 and the actual figure may have been up to 4 or so magnitudes stronger.74 Moreover, the phenomenon of forward-scattering (the nucleus at this stage had a “phase angle” of 160 degrees) would have boosted the brightness in the sunward side of the coma by about 3.5 magnitudes.75
FIG. 10.28 October 20, 6 BC: Virgo’s baby is fully delivered. Image credit: Sirscha Nicholl.
Magnitude Slope
(value of n)
Apparent Magnitude on October 20, 6 BC, if first observed on November 21–28, 8 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 20, 6 BC, if first observed on February 5, 7 BC
Apparent Magnitude on October 20, 6 BC, if first observed on May 29, 7 BC