The Great Christ Comet (62 page)

Many witnesses reported that most of the meteors were about half the size of Jupiter, with some being larger and some smaller,
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and a minority being larger than the full Moon.
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A significant number of people
believed that the stars were actually abandoning their places: “The sky presented the appearance of a shower of stars, which many thought were real stars, and omens of dreadful events.”
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According to a minister in Annapolis, “Their appearance was so incessant during some part of the phenomenon that all the stars of the firmament seemed to be darting from their places.”
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The intense brightness of a great meteor storm is sufficient for people to read newspapers
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and sufficient to awaken the sleeping, convincing them that their residences are on fire.
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Besides this, some meteors have an orange or red hue and some are yellow.
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The color is a reflection of the physical constituency of the meteoroid, its velocity, and its brightness.
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Silicate meteors tend to be red, while sodium-rich meteors tend to be orange and yellow, and iron-rich meteors may appear yellow.
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At the same time, it is widely thought that slow-to-medium meteors tend to be more red, orange, and yellow, and that faster meteors (like the Leonids) tend to have a green or blue hue. In the case of the Hydrid meteor storm, the richness in reds, oranges, and yellows (= fire-colored) is probably due to both the constituency of the meteors and their medium velocity.
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It is likely that the meteors of the meteor storm of 6 BC were considerably fierier in color than those of the 1833 Leonid meteor storm.

Second, the seven heads, on which were crowns and horns, may be explained with reference to fireballs in the area associated with Hydra's head.
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Since the scene is transpiring during a meteor storm, we can safely assume that the heads were not caused by ordinary meteors but rather by extraordinarily bright fireballs. Like the 1998 Leonid meteor display, this was a fireball-rich meteor outburst.

Fireballs may take various forms. Sometimes they consist simply of short or long bright streaks of light, but often they have extraordinarily bright heads at the front of the streaks. In shape, these heads may be round, oval, or (most commonly) pear-shaped. As anyone who has seen footage from the dashboard cameras that captured the astonishing fireball (technically, superbolide) over Chelyabinsk on February 15, 2013 (the brightness of which exceeded that of the Sun!) can testify, the streaks may look remarkably like horns, and the heads are well named because they are capable of looking very like creaturely heads. The conical region at the rear of a pear-shaped fireball head could readily pass for a stunning tall, or tiara-style, crown.
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The fireballs, together with the meteor storm, would have caused Hydra to come to life, indeed in 3D, with the dragon's heads appearing to move up and outward toward the observer, with their horns sticking out the back of their heads.

As regards the three horns without heads or crowns, we may presume that they consisted of very bright fireballs in the head region of Hydra that looked like horns, but that failed to develop notable heads.

In summary, on the eve of the celestial birth scene, a great meteor storm occurred, radiating from the tail of Hydra, the serpentine dragon. To observers convinced that the cometary phenomenon that was happening in the neighboring constellation in those days was the announcement of the Messiah's birth, the meteor storm would have seemed significant. It suggested that a great spiritual conflict was brewing between the forces of Order and the forces of Chaos, a conflict focused on the Messiah and his birth.

Hydra, the celestial representative of the forces of Evil and Disorder, appeared to have seven heads of power and crowns of sovereignty, arrogantly displaying his great royal authority. As the seven heads and ten horns streaked up into the upper half of Hydra, it must have looked like the serpent was rearing itself up self-assertively and aggressively, just as the highly venomous Black Mamba and King Cobra rear themselves up when they feel threatened and are about to attack a potential victim. At that time the dragon seemed to use its tail to hurl to the earth one-third of the stars of heaven. The celestial developments that night climaxed with the unforgettable image of the woman in the advanced stages of childbirth and the dragon beside her, looking like they were both standing on the western horizon. As the last predawn scene before the cometary baby's birth, this one set the stage for the climax of the celestial nativity drama, the birth scene, the following day.

What did it mean? Hydra was representing the forces of Chaos, and in particular the ultimate orchestrator of the worldwide rebellion of humanity at the end of the age and the authority and power behind the latter-day world tyrant, Satan (Rev. 12:17ff.). Hydra had come alive on the eve of the Messiah's birth in order to reveal that the forces of Disorder were intent on mounting a preemptive strike against the one who was destined to overcome them, who would put down the rebellion of humanity against God at the end of the age, and in particular who would vanquish the Devil and his eschatological henchman, the Antichrist. The evil empire felt gravely threatened by the Messiah's appearance on the earthly stage and was determined to kill him. Eager to thwart the divine plan to establish the rule of God on the earth, the ultimate possessor of the Antichrist's royal authority was dead set on destroying the Messiah as soon as he had fully emerged from his mother's belly. What was at stake was the ultimate fate of the world.

The dramatic events on October 19 climaxed with Hydra standing, as
π
(Pi) Hydrae rose sufficiently so that it was level with the eastern horizon. It is possible that the meteor storm had died down by this point, because Earth had already completed its pass through the dense section of the meteoroid stream. If not, the meteor storm would soon have fallen victim to the bleaching effect of the rising Sun. Naturally, at sunrise most meteors become invisible because of the intensity of the sunlight. However, during the Leonid storms such was the preponderance of bright meteors that they could still be observed streaking across the sky after sunrise (“the beautiful shower of fire” in 1833 continued “till after daylight”
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).

Undoubtedly the meteor storm ratcheted up the tension. Indeed the tension could hardly have been greater as the final night of observing before the birth came to a close. The touching scene of Virgo pregnant and giving birth to the cometary baby had been transformed into a taut thriller.

Glossary of Astronomical Terms

Absolute magnitude.
A measurement of the intrinsic brightness of a celestial object: the brightness it would have if it were precisely 1 AU from both Earth and the Sun. On magnitude values, see Magnitude.

Acronychal rising.
A celestial body's rising in the east as the Sun is setting in the west.

Almanac.
A collection of astronomical predictions, especially relating to the positions of the planets, for an upcoming year.

Altitude.
The apparent height (in degrees) of a celestial body relative to the horizon.

Antitail.
A thin cometary “mini-tail” that points toward the Sun.

Aphelion.
The point in a celestial body's orbit where it is farthest from the Sun.

Apparent magnitude.
The brightness of a celestial object as it appears from Earth. On magnitude values, see Magnitude.

Apparition.
The time during which a comet is visible in the sky.

Arcminute.
An astronomical angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of one degree.

Arcsecond.
An astronomical angular measurement equal to one sixtieth of one arcminute.

Argument of perihelion (
ω
).
The angular distance (in degrees) from the longitude of the ascending node (on which, see Longitude of the ascending node) to the perihelion point, measured in the celestial body's orbital plane and in the direction of the body's motion.

Ascending node.
The point at which a celestial body's orbit crosses the plane of the ecliptic as the orbit moves from the south to the north.

Asterism.
A pattern of stars in the sky.

Asteroid.
A planet-like rocky or metallic body that orbits the Sun.

Asteroid belt.
The region of the solar system between Mars and Jupiter where most asteroids are found.

Asteroidal comet.
A comet that is no longer active and therefore is mistakable for an asteroid.

Astronomical diaries.
Bab­ylo­nian records of daily astronomical observations; now preserved in the British Museum.

Astronomical twilight.
The period before sunrise or after sunset that starts or ends when the Sun is 18 degrees below the horizon.

Astronomical unit (AU).
A unit for measuring astronomical distances: 1 AU is the average distance between Earth and the Sun during the year.

Azimuth.
The distance (in degrees, measured clockwise) from due north to the point where a vertical line downward from a given celestial object intersects the horizon.

Backscattering.
A phenomenon that boosts the brightness of a comet when it is on the other side of Earth from the perspective of the Sun, or the other side of the Sun from the perspective of Earth. The sunlight is reflected back off the comet's larger dust particles.

Binary system.
A system of two stars orbiting around a common center of mass.

Bolide.
A fireball that attains to an apparent magnitude of between -14 and -17.

Brightness slope (n).
The pattern of development of a comet's brightness, expressed as the value of “n.”

Centaur.
A comet- or asteroid-like “minor planet” that orbits between Jupiter and Neptune.

Circumpolar.
Celestial bodies near a celestial pole that do not rise or set during a 24-hour day, because they do not drop below the horizon.

Coma.
The comet's head, consisting of a gas and dust cloud enveloping a nucleus.

Comet.
A celestial body consisting of dust and ice that, when it is close to the Sun, produces gas and dust, which form a head (coma) and tail(s) that point away from the Sun.

Cometary.
Of or relating to comets.

Conjunction.
The coming together of two celestial objects in the sky so that they seem to observers to be in the same location or very close to one another; or, the occasion when the celestial longitude of two astronomical bodies is the same; or, the occasion when a celestial body is too close to the Sun to be visible.

Constellation.
A grouping of stars that seem to observers to form a pattern.

Culmination.
The arrival of a celestial body at the meridian and therefore its highest daily altitude (relative to the horizon).

Daytime comet.
A comet so bright that it is visible, for a while, during the daytime.

Degree.
A unit for measuring angles. 180 degrees of the sky are visible above an unobstructed horizon. From the zenith to the unobstructed horizon there are 90 degrees; 1 degree is equal to 60 arcminutes or 3,600 arcseconds.

Delta Effect.
The theory that, as a comet makes a close approach to Earth (within about 0.4 AU), the outer edges of the growing coma may go undetected by the human eye.

Descending node.
The point at which an orbit crosses the plane of the ecliptic, as the comet moves from the north of it to the south of it.

Dust.
A variety of, among other things, magnesium-rich silicates, sulfides, and carbon expelled from a comet.

Dust tail.
The tail of a comet, consisting of dust particles lagging behind the comet's head (or coma). The dust is illuminated by the Sun and may become bright enough to be visible to Earth-dwellers.

Earth-Sun line.
The imaginary straight line connecting Earth and the Sun.

Eccentricity (e).
The extent to which a celestial body's orbit deviates from perfect cir­cu­larity—the eccentricity of a circle is 0; the more stretched the oval (ellipsis) is, the higher the eccentricity is, up to 1; an eccentricity of greater than 1 means that the celestial body is incapable of completing a orbital revolution.

Ecliptic.
The plane on which Earth orbits the Sun.

Elliptical.
Oval.

Encke-type comets.
Short-period comets that, like Comet Encke, have orbits so small that the comets do not have close encounters with Jupiter.

Fireball.
A meteor at least as bright as Jupiter or Venus.

First Point of Aries.
The location of the vernal equinox, a base line for astronomical measurements.

Forward-scattering.
As an active comet moves closer to the imaginary line between Earth and the Sun, the coma and the dust tail are subject to an increasingly large spike in brightness, because the Sun's light hits the small dust particles and is scattered forward.

Full Moon.
The lunar phase during which the whole of the Moon is illuminated, which occurs when it is in opposition to the Sun.

Galaxy.
A gravitationally bound system of stars and associated matter.

Gas tail.
The usually bluish, straight tail formed when electrically charged gas particles that exploded from the comet nucleus are pushed by the solar wind straight back behind the nucleus to point away from the Sun.

Gravitational effect.
The effect of the gravitational pull of planets (such as Jupiter and Saturn) on a solar system object's orbit.

Great comet.
A comet judged to be exceptional by virtue of its brightness and/or size.

Halley-type comet.
A comet that, like Halley's Comet, has an orbital period of between 20 and 200 years.

Heliacal rising.
The first visible rising of a celestial body over the (usually eastern) horizon after being invisible because of proximity to the Sun.

Heliacal setting.
The final visible setting of a celestial body in the run-up to becoming invisible because of proximity to the Sun.

Hui-hsing.
A Chinese expression for a broom-star comet, that is, a comet with a tail.

Hyperbolic orbit.
A solar system object's orbit when it has greater than escape velocity (that is, an eccentricity value of greater than 1.0).

Inclination (i).
The angle between the plane of a solar system object's orbit and the ecliptic (in degrees).

Inferior planets.
Mercury and Venus.

Inner planets.
Planets inside the asteroid belt, namely Mercury, Venus, Earth, and Mars.

Inner solar system.
The region of the solar system up to and including the asteroid belt, incorporating the Sun, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, the asteroid belt, and Ceres.

Intercalary month.
A leap lunar month inserted into a lunar calendar to calibrate it with the solar calendar.

Julian calendar.
A calendar that assumes that a full year consists of precisely 365.25 days and that, unlike the Gregorian calendar, does not allow for the fact that a full year is actually 11 minutes less than 365.25 days. From 45/44 BC to 9/8 BC a leap day was added every three years instead of four, with the result that three leap days too many had been intercalated. The Emperor Augustus remedied this by suspending leap years until AD 4 or 8.

Jupiter-family comets.
Comets that complete one revolution around the Sun in less than 20 years.

Kracht Group.
A group of comets that come as close as 0.047 AU to the Sun and have a relatively low inclination (roughly 13.4 degrees).

Kreutz Family.
A large group of bright sungrazing comets, including the great comets of 1843 and 1882 and Ikeya-Seki in 1965, which have high-inclination and 600- to 1,100-year orbits.

Longitude of the ascending node (
Ω
).
The angle from the First Point of Aries (the vernal equinox) to a celestial object's ascending node.

Longitude of perihelion.
The angle between the First Point of Aries (the vernal equinox) and the point of perihelion.

Long-period comet.
A comet that takes more than 200 years to complete one revolution around the Sun.

Lunar eclipse.
When the Moon, or a part of it, moves into Earth's shadow, directly behind Earth.

Magnitude.
A measurement of the relative brightness of celestial bodies. The brighter the object, the lower the magnitude value. A star of magnitude +1 is 2.5 times brighter than a star of magnitude +2. A star five magnitudes brighter than another star is 100 times brighter.

Major axis.
The longest diameter of an ellipse (oval), measuring from the widest points through the foci and the center.

Massing.
A grouping of three or more planets in the same area of sky.

Meridian.
The great imaginary circle that passes through the observer's zenith and nadir, the celestial north and south poles, and the observer's due north and due south.

Meteor.
The streak of light, or “shooting star,” that appears when a body of matter from outer space (a meteoroid) is heated until incandescent due to friction as it encounters resistance from Earth's atmosphere.

Meteor shower.
When a number of meteors seem to radiate from one particular point in the sky at one particular time of the year.

Meteor storm.
When more than 1,000 meteors per hour radiate out of one point in the sky (or, more technically, when more than 1,000 meteors would occur per hour if the radiant were at the zenith).

Meteorite.
A piece of space debris that survives its encounter with Earth's atmosphere and surface.

Meteoroid.
A piece of rocky or metallic debris in space, commonly from comets or asteroids.

Meteoroid stream.
A stream of particles ejected from a comet or asteroid.

Minor axis.
The shortest diameter of an ellipse (oval), measuring from the narrowest points through the center.

Minor planet.
A solar system object that is not classified as a comet or a planet. Included in the minor planets are asteroids, centaurs, and trans-Neptunian objects.   

Morning star.
A bright celestial entity, particularly Venus, that is present in the eastern sky in the predawn period.

Nebulous star.
A cluster of hazy stars, or a star in a haze.

New Moon.
The initial phase of the Moon's cycle, when the Moon first becomes visible after being in conjunction with the Sun.

Nongravitational effects.
The acceleration or deceleration of a comet due to the recoil effect of its degassing.

Nova.
A cataclysmic nuclear explosion on the surface of a white dwarf that causes a sudden brightening that lasts for weeks or months.

Nucleus.
The icy and dusty core of a comet, which becomes active when near the Sun.

Occultation.
When one celestial body is hidden by another body that moves between it and the observer.

Orbital elements.
The six pieces of data that fully describe a solar system body's orbit.

Orbital period (P).
The time a solar system body takes to complete one revolution around the Sun.

Orbital plane.
The plane on which a body in the solar system orbits the Sun.

Outburst.
The sudden, unexpected explosive release of dust by a comet, causing significant brightening.

Outer planets.
The planets in the solar system that are beyond the asteroid belt, consisting of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune.

Outer solar system.
The region of the solar system beyond the asteroid belt, as far as Neptune.

Outgassing.
The release of jets of gas from the comet nucleus when it is close to the Sun.

Parabolic orbit.
A solar system object's orbit when it has an eccentricity value of 1.0; the boundary between a capture (elliptical) orbit and an escape (hyperbolic) orbit.