The Great Christ Comet (75 page)

120
 Luz,
Matthew 1–7
, 132.

121
 Ibid. Cf. Kim Paffenroth, “The Star of Bethlehem Casts Light on Its Modern Interpreters,”
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
34 (1993): 455–457.

122
 Michael D. Goulder,
Midrash and Lection in Matthew
(London: SPCK, 1974), 3–46; Bernard P. Robinson, “Matthew's Nativity Stories: Historical and Theological Questions for Today's Readers,” in
New Perspectives on the Nativity
, 113–115. Moyise,
Was the Birth of Jesus according to Scripture?
, 52, claims that Matthew was simply “offering a fulfillment of Scripture in narrative form.” Although he acknowledges that a Scriptural background does not rule out the historicity of the events of the Nativity (ibid., 53), he nevertheless insists that “if their historicity is doubted on other grounds, then it offers additional support.” Employing a hermeneutic of suspicion, he assumes that correspondences and parallels between Gospel narratives and ancient prophecies are generally best explained with reference to invention rather than historical fulfillment.

123
 Charles L. Quarles,
Midrash Criticism: Introduction and Appraisal
(Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1998), 54, highlights that creative historiography was condemned by the early Christians, for example, in 1 Tim. 4:6–7; Titus 1:14; and 2 Pet. 1:16.

124
 As David H. Kelley and Eugene F. Milone,
Exploring Ancient Skies
, 2nd ed. (New York: Springer, 2011), 486, point out, the Star might have been a phenomenon that occurred once in human history 2,000 years ago, which, because it has not recurred, is beyond scientific analysis or identification.

125
 Cf. R. T. France,
The Gospel of Matthew
, New International Commentary on the New Testament (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerd­mans, 2007), 74.

126
 On the early Chinese, Korean, and Japanese records, see, for example, Thomas John York, “The Reliability of Early East Asian Astronomical Records” (PhD thesis, Durham University, 2003), available online at
http://
etheses
.dur
.ac
.uk
/3080/.

127
 It has been suggested that Matthew invented the story in the wake of the visit of a great entourage of the kings of Armenia and three other kingdoms (called “magi” in Pliny the Elder,
Natural History
30.1.16–17) in AD 66 to Rome to honor Nero, in response to some astronomical sign (see Cassius Dio 63:1–7; Suetonius,
Nero
13) (e.g., Francis Wright Beare,
The Gospel according to Matthew
:
A Commentary
[Oxford: Blackwell, 1981], 74–75; cf. Schnackenburg,
Gospel of Matthew
, 20). However, there is no evidence that Matthew was anything like the inventor of material that this hypothesis supposes. In truth, the historical incident in Nero's day actually confirms the plausibility of Matthew's account. As France (
Gospel of Matthew
, 64) put it, “it demonstrates that high-ranking eastern magi were willing and able to travel west for diplomatic reasons” (cf. Donald A. Hagner,
Matthew
, 2 vols., Word Biblical Commentary [Dallas: Word, 1993–1995], 1:25–26; see also the important essay on the historical nature of what Matthew writes concerning the Magi by Yamauchi, “Episode,” 18–23).

128
 Ivor Bulmer-Thomas, “The Star of Bethlehem—A New Explanation—Stationary Point of a Planet,”
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society
33 (1992): 365–366, cavalierly dismisses Ignatius's evidence on the ground that someone writing more than 100 years later cannot be regarded as a dependable witness. However, (1) Ignatius was a contemporary of Matthew, and both seem to have been closely associated with Syrian Antioch; (2) it is widely believed that, in
To the Ephesians
19:2–3, Ignatius was citing from a first-century hymn concerning the Star.

129
 My translation.

130
 See William R. Schoedel, “Ignatius and the Reception of the Gospel of Matthew in Antioch,” in
Social History of the Matthean Community: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches
, ed. David L. Balch (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1991), 155–156.

131
 Cullen, “Can We Find the Star?,” 158.

1
 Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan,
Comet
(New York: Pocket Books, 1986), 128.

2
 Only the Sun or a superbolide may be brighter.

3
 Apart from perhaps a great meteor or superbolide.

4
 Victor Clube and Bill Napier,
The Cosmic Serpent: A Catastrophist View of Earth History
(New York: Universe, 1982), 158.

5
 Cf. David Seargent,
The Greatest Comets in History: Broom Stars and Celestial Scimitars
(Berlin: Springer, 2009), 22–23.

6
 “Apparition” in astronomy refers to the time during which a comet is visible.

7
 Cf. ibid., 23.

8
 Cf. Jacques Crovisier and Thérèse Encrenaz,
Comet Science: The Study of Remnants from the Birth of the Solar System
, trans. Stephen Lyle (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 1.

9
 Decades ago it was believed that comets were dirty snowballs (so Fred L. Whipple,
The Mystery of Comets
[Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1985], 147–148), but now they are thought to be “icy dirtballs.”

10
 As Nick James and Gerald North,
Observing Comets
(London: Springer, 2003), 24–25, point out, by “dust” astronomers do not mean domestic dust, but rather a variety of, among other things, magnesium-rich silicates, sulfides, and carbon.

11
 Crovisier and Encrenaz,
Comet Science
, 66. The nucleus of Halley's Comet has been described as “a pitch-black rock covered with mountains and valleys, . . . measured at 15.3 by 7.2 by 7.2 km” (Peter Jenniskens,
Meteor Showers and Their Parent Comets
[Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006], 16).

12
 In 2014, Comet 67P was the subject of intensive study by the European Space Agency's Rosetta spacecraft. Then on November 12, 2014, the comet's nucleus became host to Rosetta's robotic lander called Philae. This little probe proceeded to take panoramic images of the nucleus surface, to examine the surface's electrical and mechanical properties, to take gas measurements, and to investigate the internal structure by means of low-frequency radio waves and laboratory testing of drilled sub-surface samples.

13
 Seargent,
Greatest Comets
, 5.

14
 See Zdenek Sekanina, “Statistical Investigation and Modeling of Sungrazing Comets Discovered with the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory,”
Astrophysical Journal
566.1 (2002): 582; Yanga R. Fernández, “The Nucleus of Comet Hale-Bopp (C/1995 O1): Size and Activity,”
Earth, Moon, and Planets
89 (2002): 3–25.

15
 Sekanina, “Statistical Investigation,” 582.

16
 A centaur is a comet- or asteroid-like “minor planet” that orbits between Jupiter and Neptune.

17
 Consider also the size of other centaurs such as 5145 Pholus (about 200 km in diameter), 1995 SN55 (300 km), and 10199 Chariklo (260 km); and the size of the trans-Neptunian objects 1992 QB1 (160 km) and 1993 FW (175 km). It is believed that some centaurs may evolve into short-period comets.

18
 On giant comets, see Mark E. Bailey, S. V. M. Clube, G. Hahn, W. M. Napier, and G. B. Valsecchi, “Hazards Due to Giant Comets: Climate and Short-Term Catastrophism,” in
Hazards Due to Comets and Asteroids
, ed. T. Gehrels (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1995), 479–533, esp. pp. 482–486; Mark E. Bailey, V. V. Emel'yanenko, G. Hahn, N. W. Harris, K. A. Hughes, K. Muininen, and J. V. Scotti, “Orbital Evolution of Comet 1995 O1 Hale-Bopp,”
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
281 (1996): 916–924; and S. V. M. Clube, F. Hoyle, W. M. Napier, and N. C. Wickramasinghe, “Giant Comets, Evolution, and Civilization,”
Astrophysics and Space Science
245 (1996): 43–60. By “giant” these authors mean a diameter of 100 km or larger.

19
 So, among many others, Brian G. Marsden, “The Sungrazing Comet Group,”
Astronomical Journal
72 (1967): 1170–1183; Ernst Julius Öpik, “Sun-Grazing Comets and Tidal Disruption,”
Irish Astronomical Journal
7 (March 1966): 141. A lot of work on the history of the sungrazers has been done in recent years by Zdenek Sekanina and P. W. Chodas—see, for example, “Fragmentation Hierarchy of Bright Sungrazing Comets and the Birth and Orbital Evolution of the Kreutz System. I. Two-Superfragment Model,”
Astrophysical Journal
607 (2004): 620–639; and “Fragmentation Hierarchy of Bright Sungrazing Comets and the Birth and Orbital Evolution of the Kreutz System. II. The Case for Cascading Fragmentation,”
Astrophysical Journal
663 (2007): 657–676. They suggest that the Kreutz progenitor's “maximum dimension must have been close to 100 km” (“Two-Superfragment Model,” 635).

20
 Duncan Steel,
Rogue Asteroids and Doomsday Comets
(London: John Wiley, 1997), 126.

21
 Bailey et al., “Hazards Due to Giant Comets,” 484–485.

22
 So Martin Mobberley,
Hunting and Imaging Comets
(Berlin: Springer, 2011), 22.

23
 For fascinating images of cometary structures in the vicinity of the nucleus, see Jürgen Rahe, Bertram Donn, and Karl Wurm,
Atlas of Cometary Forms: Structures Near the Nucleus
(Washington, DC: NASA, 1969).

24
 “Comet Hale-Bopp—Still Enormous!,”
http://
www
.eso
.org
/public
/news/eso9933
(last modified June 29, 1999); Robert Burnham,
Great Comets
(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 101, 103; Zdenek Sekanina, “Activity of Comet Hale-Bopp (1995 O1) beyond 6 AU from the Sun,”
Astronomy and Astrophysics
314 (1996): 964.

25
 John F. Pane, “Comet 17P/Holmes,”
http://
www
.cs
.cmu
.edu
/~pane/holmes
(accessed July 1, 2014).

26
 At the coma's circumference the brightness decreases to the point that it is indistinguishable from the tail or the sky.

27
 N. D. James, “Comet C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake): The Great Comet of 1996,”
Journal of the British Astronomical Association
108 (1998): 161–162. Also Andreas Kammerer, personal email message to the author, October 30, 2012.

28
 Gary W. Kronk,
Cometography: A Catalog of Comets
, 6 vols. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999–), 1:449.

29
 Andreas Kammerer, personal email message to the author, October 30, 2012. Cf. Mobberley,
Hunting and Imaging Comets
, 75: “maybe 5° across.”

30
 See, for example, W. M. Napier, “Evidence for Cometary Bombardment Episodes,”
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
366 (2006): 977–982; Fred Schaaf,
Wonders of the Sky: Observing Rainbows, Comets, Eclipses, the Stars, and Other Phenomena
(Mineola, NY: Dover, 1983), 134–135.

31
 David Seargent,
Comets: Vagabonds of Space
(Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1982), 26, 28.

32
 Ibid., 30.

33
 See John C. Brandt and Robert D. Chapman,
Introduction to Comets
, 2nd ed. (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004), 129, 148. A comet may also have a sodium, or neutral, tail, which fluoresces.

34
 Cf. Mobberley,
Hunting and Imaging Comets
, 7.

35
 The “ecliptic” is the apparent path of the Sun through the sky. Imagine that you are riding a horse on a carousel that moves in an anticlockwise direction—the horse is Earth and the central column is the Sun. The level you are on is “the ecliptic.” Most of the planets go around the Sun at a similar angle to that of Earth. Now imagine that the carousel can be tilted up at different angles. Tilted up at 1 to 30 degrees, you are like a narrowly inclined comet going around the Sun. Tilted up (with seatbelts on!) at 45 degrees and 90 degrees, you are like a steeply inclined comet orbiting the Sun. The point is that “narrowly inclined” and “steeply inclined” reflect the perspective of someone used to going around the carousel at ground level (representing the ecliptic). By the way, a tilt of 0–90 degrees makes the orbit prograde, while a tilt of 90–180 degrees makes it retrograde. A tilt of 150–180 degrees is the retrograde equivalent of a prograde tilt of 0–30 degrees.

36
 Richard Schmude,
Comets and How to Observe Them
(New York: Springer, 2010), 144; Fred Schaaf and Guy Ottewell,
Mankind's Comet: Halley's Comet in the Past, the Future, and Especially the Present
(Greenville, SC: Furman University, 1985), 56; Seargent,
Greatest Comets
, 98.

37
 The Ulysses spacecraft unexpectedly came across the tail of Hyakutake on May 1, 1996 (see “Ulysses's Surprise Trip through Comet's Tail Puts Hyakutake in Record Books,” a news feature on the Royal Astronomical Society website from the year 2000 [
http://
www
.ras
.org
.uk
/news
-and
-press
/70
-news2000/377
-pn00
-07
,
last modified May 8, 2012]).

38
 Seargent,
Comets: Vagabonds of Space
, 116; S. K. Vsekhsvyatskii,
Physical Characteristics of Comets
(Jerusalem: Israel Program for Scientific Translations, 1964), 130–131.

39
 Although we cannot be sure how long Comet McNaught (C/2006 P1) was (its tail was at least 1½ AU long), we know that the region of space affected by it was much greater than that affected by Hyakutake. Whereas it took 2½ days for the Ulysses spacecraft to get through the shocked solar wind around Hyakutake, it took 18 days for it to get through the shocked solar wind around McNaught (“The Shocking Size of Comet McNaught,”
http://
www
.ras
.org
.uk
/news
-and
-press
/157
-news2010/1782
-the
-shocking
-size
-of
-comet
-mcnaught;
last modified April 13, 2010).

40
 David W. Pankenier, Zhentao Xu, and Yaotiao Jiang,
Archaeoastronomy in East Asia
(Amherst, NY: Cambria, 2008), 104–105.

41
 John Williams,
Observations of Comets, from B.C. 611 to A.D. 1640
(London: Strangeways & Walden, 1871), 52; Pankenier et al.,
Archaeoastronomy in East Asia
, 103 (over 37 days it grew from 100 degrees to 200 degrees).

42
 Pankenier et al.,
Archaeoastronomy in East Asia
, 247; Kronk,
Cometography
, 1:333–334.

43
 Among those who reported such extraordinary lengths for Comet Tebbutt at the end of June and start of July of 1861 was Johann Friedrich Julius Schmidt of Athens; see Gary Kronk, “C/1861 J1 (Great Comet of 1861),”
http://
cometography
.com
/lcomets
/1861j1.html
(last modified September 30, 2006).

44
 See Seargent,
Greatest Comets
, 45, 92, 111, 114, 209; Fred Schaaf,
Comet of the Century
(New York: Springer, 1997), 237, 246; Kronk,
Cometography,
1:445; Gary Kronk, “C/1996 B2 (Hyakutake),”
http://
cometography
.com
/lcomets
/1996b2.html
(last modified September 30, 2006). Schaaf,
Comet of the Century
, 204–228, notes that there was a 90+-degree comet in 147 BC and that there were 100+-degree comets in AD 191, 287, 390, 418, and 891.

45
 Seargent,
Greatest Comets
, 133.

46
 Ibid., 140. Note too Seargent's comments regarding the width of Mithridates's Comet of 135 BC (p. 70).

47
 Ibid., 45, 47, 92, 103.

48
 Ibid., 221.

49
 Ibid., 107.

50
 Casimiro Diaz in Manila (The Philippines) as cited by Kronk,
Cometography,
1:372. What Diaz writes suggests that the 1680 comet was about 180 degrees in length! It is possible that Diaz, in the Philippines, saw the comet around the time of its peak (i.e., on December 11–16 or 19–23), when Europeans were unable to see it.

51
 Richard Hooke as cited by Kronk,
Cometography,
1:370; and Seargent,
Greatest Comets
, 114. Comet Skjellerup-Maristany in 1927 was similarly broad (ibid., 151).

52
 For more, see Brandt and Chapman,
Introduction to Comets
, 136–141.

53
 James and North,
Observing Comets
, 28, 30 fig. 2.6.