Amidst all the conjecture concerning this remarkable appearance, some
regarding it as a new world in process of creation, others as a sun on
fire, Tycho Brahe held to the belief, though unable to prove it, that it
was a star with a regular period of light and of darkness, caused
possibly by its nearness to, or distance from, the earth. When the
telescope was invented, forty years later, the accuracy of this theory
was known. At the spot carefully mapped out by Tycho Brahe, a telescopic
star was found, undoubtedly the same one whose brilliant appearance had
so startled the world in 1572. Upon this, astronomers began to study the
annals of their science for similar appearances, and found that a very
brilliant star had appeared and disappeared near the same spot in the
heavens in 1264, and also in 945. The inference was that this star had a
period of about three hundred years, and counting back, imagination
might place one of its periods of brilliancy very near the time of
Christ's birth. For this reason it received the name of the Star of
Bethlehem, and many have fully accepted the theory which makes this
variable luminary identical with the "Star of the East.
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