What two planet came together roughly 2000 years to make what? Can you name the planets?

Question

What is so special about these planets?

http://thestarofbethlehemmovie.com/

Jupiter the largest and Venus the brightest

Note: they did not collide they came together near each other forming the star of bethelhem. FACT.

Answer 1

Well, I don't know. But those who are saying there has been nothing on DEC. 25 are making an erroneous assumption that Christ was born on Dec. 25.

I would like to find out more about the Star of Bethlehem, and what scientific evidence is on that DVD. But I don't have the DVD yet.

Answer 2

I'll bet you're talking about the Star of Bethlehem. Which two planets, I don't know, because the date of the first Christmas is not known. I even looked at a computer sky map set for December 25, over a period of six years back then, and there were no alignments.

So maybe Jupiter and Venus or Jupiter and Mars. But if I remember, I was unable to find any such alignments over a long period of time.

Edit: I checked again, from 16 BC to 16 AD. Jupiter and Venus pass each other several times, but there are only a couple of really close passes. The best alignment is 6/17, of 1 BC. But it is in the evening sky, in the west, following the sun. The only other good one is 12/8, of 3 BC. But this pair rises only about 1 hour and 15 minutes before the sun. A couple others are close to aligned, but way too close to the sun to see.

Let's keep in mind, though, people can see these planets moving closer together every day for months. It's not like they suddenly jumped across the sky and blended into each other one night and everybody said, "Oooh, what's THAT?!?!?". And the closest of these passes has an easily visible gap between them.

So, is that what you experts on this subject are saying? Jesus was born on December 8th, 3, BC? (By our modern calendar,) Hey, 'sokay with me. Oh, I suppose it's been adequately proven that he existed at all, right?

Answer 3

Appulses (also called planetary conjunctions) are not that rare (close ones are not that common either). Approximately 2000 years ago, there were appulses of Venus and Jupiter, and appulses of Venus and Saturn (these come in groups).
In the year we call 1 BC, in August, there were two appulses only 10 days apart: Venus and Jupiter on the 21st, Mercury and Jupiter on the 31st.

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In one appulse around that time (give or take a year), the approach was so close that they would have appeared as one very bright star for about 30 minutes.

Venus and Jupiter, separated by 28" (half a minute) on June 17, 2 BC (visible in the Middle East).

Because Venus was involved, it could only be seen in a narrow band of longitudes during that half hour. Too far west and the sky is too bright (or the sun has not even set yet). Too far east and Venus would have had already set before the event.

When you have many appulses over a short interval, it becomes easier to predict the next ones.

Persian and Egyptian astronomers had enough knowledge and mathematical tools to predict such close appulses, but they would have been uncertain whether the planets got close enough to be seen as only one very bright star.

Just as modern amateurs travel to see total solar eclipses, astronomers from that era would have travelled to see such an event (and check on their calculations).

One of these events was visible from the general area of modern Israel. One could have gone on the North side of the Mediterranean Sea or further south in the desert, but in both cases, travel would have been more difficult.

These astronomers would have travelled in large convoys (these trips lasted months, maybe years), carrying letters of greetings from their king(s) and gifts for the sovereigns of the countries they cross. They were known as "embassies". They would have carries stuff like gold, incense, myrrh (a sap that made an excellent perfume when mixed with incense -- more expensive than gold in those days.)

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I agree with Geoff that this was turned into the star of Bethleem story after the fact, the same way that any comet that was seen within 5 years of the death of a king became, after the fact, an unmistakable omen of the king's imminent death (or, in the case f Charlmagne, a solar eclipse).

These associations are very common throughout history.

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There will be an interesting appulse of Venus and Saturn on August 13, 2008, at 19:02 UT visible from a longitude band that goes from London (UK) to western Germany. Further west, the sun will not have set, further east and the planets will have set before the closest approach. The separation will be 14' (half the apparent diameter of the Full Moon), way too far to make the pair look like one star.

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The closest appulse of two naked-eye planets within a decade will be on March 22, 2013 at 18:24 UT. However, Mars and Uranus will be so close to the Sun that the longitude band will be quite narrow (a couple of degrees), again in eastern England. And Uranus is barely visible to the naked eye at the best of times (and this is not one of the best times). The separation will be 1' (1/60 of a degree)


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For those who had never heard of planets coming together (in apparent positions): there was an article in Sky & Telescope in March 1979 (pages 220 to 222) by Steven Albers.

The first that I had heard about a series of appulses in the last decade BC was over 20 years ago, in a presentation (by M. Watson?) of the Royal Astronomical Society of Canada.

Answer 4

The only thing i know that 2 planets collided a very long time ago tat included the old Earth and another planet. They collided and was made into 1 big planet with is called Earth.

*It was not 2,000 years ago btw it was a very long time ago. Thats the latest known collition of 2 planets colliding to each other.*

Answer 5

OK, here's my best guestimation...
Well, I think the end product was a word we all know...

ASSUME

Don't do it because it makes an...

never mind...

There have not been two planets, in our own solar system, at least, that have 'come together' in the last 2000 years...
Where did you get this little salacious bit of information, whereas no one else in the scientific community has?

I am bewildered, befuddled, perplexed, and other- wise messed up that you would be privy to such information, when no one...
and I mean
NO ONE else
would be!
I offer my deepest, heart- felt congratulations to you and your newly- found discovery and postulation!
Well Done!
B

******EDIT******

Oops!
My bad...
I thought we were answering questions about planets 'coming together' here...
'Collision'
Is the first thing that came to my mind!
ALIGNMENT, however, would have been a different thought, indeed!
Humble apologies!
B

Answer 6

Are you referring to the recent speculation that the bright star in the east may have been a conjunction of three planets about the time of the supposed birth of Jesus?

Answer 7

I bet you're thinking of the Star of Bethlehem. Nice story, but it was added to the gospel at least a hundred years after the event and doesn't fit with any known historical events.

Answer 8

Don't know where you're getting your information but it's flawed. There's no evidence whatsoever that two planets came together 2,000 years ago to make anything else.

Answer 9

what...ive never heard anything like that.