An Israeli Rabbi has heralded the arrival of the Messiah after an astronomer predicted the birth of a new star in 2022. Jewish prophecy foretells that such a celestial event will coincide with the arrival of the saviour and liberator of Jewish people.

The new star is expected to be formed when two existing stars collide in around five years time. As the stars merge one will increase in brightness 10,000-fold, visible to the naked eye and one of the brightest objects in the night sky for a period.

The imminent celestial birth has now been proclaimed as signifying the coming of the Messiah by Rabbi Yosef Berger, of King David's Tomb on Mount Zion in Israel.

"The Zohar states explicitly that the Messianic process will be accompanied by several stars appearing. The Zohar goes into great depth, describing how many stars, and which colors they will be," Rabbi Berger told Breaking Israel News.

"The Rambam brings this verse about a star appearing as proof that the Messiah will come one day. But he says it will come from Jacob, and not from Esau. More specifically, from the tribe of Judah."

Professor Larry Molnar from Calvin College in Michigan predicted the collision of stars to occur in 2022 or 2023. He said: "It's only ever a one in a million chance that you will actually see it as its exploding. No one has ever seen a star go into this kind of explosion."