What's your sign?! Did you recently hear that NASA changed the zodiac signs? This rumor circulates every few years (2011, 2016, and now 2020). Once again, NASA did not change the zodiac signs, but they did do some math that might change things for you and what you consider your sign. Let's discuss...
👀 We see your comments about a zodiac story that re-emerges every few years. No, we did not change the zodiac. When the Babylonians invented the constellations 3,000 years ago, they chose to leave out a 13th sign. So, we did the math: https://t.co/DQOs5VSjT7 pic.twitter.com/WlblguobGT
— NASA (@NASA) July 17, 2020
First Things First: Astrology is not Astronomy…
Astronomy is the scientific study of everything in outer space. Astronomers and other scientists know that stars many light-years away have no effect on the ordinary activities of humans on Earth.
Astrology, meanwhile, is something else. It’s the belief that the positions of stars and planets can influence human events. It’s not considered a science.
What is the zodiac and what is special about these constellations?
Imagine a straight line drawn from Earth though the sun and out into space way beyond our solar system where the stars are. Then, picture Earth following its orbit around the sun. This imaginary line would rotate, pointing to different stars throughout one complete trip around the sun – or, one year. All the stars that lie close to the imaginary flat disk swept out by this imaginary line are said to be in the zodiac. The constellations in the zodiac are simply the constellations that this imaginary straight line points to in its year-long journey.
What are Constellations?
A constellation is group of stars like a dot-to-dot puzzle. If you join the dots, or stars in the sky, and use your imagination the picture would look like an object, animal, or person. For example, Orion is a group of stars that the Greeks thought looked like a giant hunter with a sword attached to his belt. Other than making a pattern in Earth’s sky, these stars may not be related at all.
The Long History:
In ancient times, astronomers did not fully understand how Earth, the Sun, and the stars moved. Nor did they have any idea the Universe is so vast. But they were keen observers of the sky and tried very hard to make sense of it.
People had already imagined that the constellations might be important symbols, telling stories of their gods and other myths. It was not a big step to suppose that the changing positions of the constellations at different times of the year might be important to people and events on Earth.
The Babylonians lived over 3,000 years ago. They divided the zodiac into 12 equal parts – one for each month of their calendar. So, as Earth orbits the sun, the sun would appear to pass through each of the 12 parts of the zodiac. Since the Babylonians already had a 12-month calendar (based on the phases of the moon), each month got a slice of the zodiac all to itself. The qualities associated with the signs didn’t come about until the 1st century BC.
HOWEVER...
Even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So they picked one, Ophiuchus, to leave out. Even then, some of the chosen 12 didn’t fit neatly into their assigned slice of the pie and crossed over into the next one.
When the Babylonians first invented the 12 signs of zodiac, a birthday between about July 23 and August 22 meant being born under the constellation Leo. Now, 3,000 years later, the sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction. So, an August 4th birthday would mean a person was born "under the sign" of Cancer (one constellation "earlier"), not Leo.
Additionally, the constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the sun spends different lengths of time lined up with each one. For example, the line from Earth through the sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only 7 days. To make a tidy match with their 12-month calendar, the Babylonians ignored the fact that the sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12. Then they assigned each of those 12 constellations equal amounts of time.
So, NASA says the didn’t change any zodiac signs…they just did the math. Below is a table of the zodiacs with 13 constellations and the actual amount of time the sun spends in each one. What do you think?
