star-of-bethlehem-5bc

A citation-accuracy atlas of the "Star of Bethlehem" / 5 BC comet question — GenesisAeon Package 58.

This package does two things:

1. Encodes the real, independently checked historical records and scientific hypotheses (Humphreys 1991, Matney 2025, the Han-shu and Samguk Sagi chronicle entries, real Phaethon/Geminid science) as structured, tested, citable data.
2. Keeps this ecosystem's own earlier, unsupported speculation — that (3200) Phaethon was specifically the 5 BC object, and underwent a catastrophic breakup 2000 years ago — on the record as explicitly retracted, with the concrete reason each claim did not survive a citation-accuracy re-check. See DISCLAIMER.md and RETRACTED_HYPOTHESIS.md.

It does not implement the ecosystem's usual UTAC/CREP Diamond interface — this is a historical-astronomy documentation package, not a dynamical-systems model, and forcing that vocabulary on it would itself be the kind of unearned bridge this package exists to avoid.

What's real here

• Humphreys 1991 (QJRAS 32, 389–407): proposed the 5 BC comet as the Star of Bethlehem, without identifying it with any specific known body.
• Matney 2025 (JBAA, Dec. 2025): NASA planetary scientist's orbit-modelling analysis finding a plausible trajectory passing close to Earth in June 5 BC with temporary geosynchronous motion — the first real mechanism addressing Matthew 2's "stood over" directly, independent of Phaethon or the Geminids.
• The Han-shu (5 BC, tailed hui-hsing, Capricornus, 70+ days) and Samguk Sagi (4 BC, tailless po-hsing, Aquila) chronicle entries, correctly characterized including their real taxonomic and textual ambiguities.
• Real Phaethon/Geminid science: the "rock comet" mineral-decomposition mechanism, and the Geminid stream's current best dynamical age estimate (~18,000 years, Jo & Ishiguro 2024 — an order of magnitude older than the ~2000-year figure this ecosystem's own earlier drafts used).

What's explicitly not claimed

• That (3200) Phaethon was the 5 BC object.
• That Phaethon underwent a catastrophic breakup ~2000 years ago.
• That backward orbital integration over 2000 years can pin down a body's sky position to fractions of a degree.

See RETRACTED_HYPOTHESIS.md for the full account of how these claims were checked and why they don't hold up, including one specific citation misattribution (Jewitt & Li 2010's real ~0.75 mag brightening vs. the 10–15 mag figure an earlier internal draft attributed to it).

Quickstart

pip install star-of-bethlehem-5bc

from star_of_bethlehem_5bc import StarOfBethlehem5BC

atlas = StarOfBethlehem5BC()
for record in atlas.list_historical_records():
    print(record.summary())

print(atlas.evidence_summary())

Development

pip install -e ".[dev]"
pre-commit install
ruff check src tests
mypy src
pytest

Citation

See CITATION.cff and .zenodo.json.