Upon Christ’s birth, legend has it, a star appeared in the sky over Two possible explanations are: a conjunction of Jupiter and Venus, which would have taken place about 2BC, and would have appeared as a single bright star; and a supernova, which was recorded by Chinese astronomers in 5BC. Since it turns out that King Herod, in whose reign Christ was supposed to have been born, died in the spring of 4BC, we can probably rule out the planetary conjunction theory.So, you heard it here first: the Star of Bethlehem, if it really happened, was, probably, a supernova. Or a divine miracle, obviously.
Jesus's birthday
If the planetary-conjunction hypothesis is correct (we know we're suggesting it's not, but bear with us), we can put an exact date on Jesus's birth - 17 June, 2BC. Which would make Jesus a Gemini. Unfortunately, as we've seen, King Herod, who plays a significant part in the story, was almost certainly dead by then. The more plausible supernova hypothesis places Christ's birth in March or April 5BC, making Jesus either Pisces, Aries or Taurus.
Virgin birth (parthenogenesis)
The thing that needs explaining here is not a virgin giving birth. It’s the fact that it doesn’t happen more often. It’s the whole strange sexual reproduction business that’s confusing: various theories have been put forward to explain it, but none has been fully accepted. The most widely held seems to be that it is an advantage in the evolutionary arms race against parasites. 
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