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The then Head of the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Science at Cambridge published an article about the Star of Bethlehem in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1991<ref>Humphreys CJ (1991) "The Star of Bethlehem - a Comet in 5BC - and the Date of the Birth of Christ", Q Jl R astr Soc, vol 32, pp 389-407. For free download from https://adsabs.harvard.edu/full/1991QJRAS..32..389H as at 05 Jan 2024.</ref>. Professor Humphreys contributed a similar article to Science and Christian Belief<ref>Humphreys C (1995) "The Star of Bethlehem", Science and Christian Belief, vol 5, pp 83-101. For free download from https://www.asa3.org/ASA/topics/Astronomy-Cosmology/S&CB%2010-93Humphreys.html as at 05 Jan 2024.</ref>.

*There are three main characteristics of the star of Bethlehem recorded in Matthew: it was a star which had newly appeared, it travelled slowly through the sky against the star background, and it stood over Bethlehem. It is suggested in this paper that one, and only one, astronomical object satisfies this description: a comet. It is proposed that the Magi originally saw this comet in the east in the morning sky. They travelled to Jerusalem, journey time of 1-2 months, and in this time the comet had moved to the south in the morning sky, hence it appeared ahead of them as they travelled from Jerusalem to Bethlehem on the last lap of their journey. The comet appeared to stand over Bethlehem with a near vertical tail. It is shown that the description 'stand over' is uniquely applied in ancient literature to refer to a comet.