December '24

This month, it deliberates on the topic of stars, a symbol of Christmas. Let us leave aside an evaluation of the celestial phenomenon above Bethlehem in spite of the risk of ruining Christmas. As an example, we would like to mention the blood-thirsty persecution of all of Bethlehem’s baby boys by the power-hungry king Herod the Great.

To be fair, Jesus of Nazareth never claimed terrestrial life was a piece of cake. In that sense, a star is an adequate symbol of his birth. What remains problematic, though, is the star’s colour. While we are used to depicting it that way, the star surely could not have been white, let alone yellow.

The birth of the saviour of mankind was surely the hottest event of that night. Still, every self-respecting astronomer knows that the hottest stars, which emanate a heat at about 25 thousand Kelvins, shine blue light. White light is associated only with heat of around six thousand Kelvins, a value that is slightly above average at best in the context of the entire universe.