If you thought you were a Scorpio or Sagittarius, chances are you might be wrong!
More than 3,000 years ago the ancient Babylonians divided the Zodiac into 12 equal parts, represented by the constellation the sun would appear to pass through, at different points during the calendar year. But they cheated a bit…
The sun doesn’t actually pass through each constellation for a consistent, one month period. And although the Babylonians knew there was a thirteenth constellation called “Ophiuchus”, it didn’t match up neatly with their 12 month calendar, so they decided to leave it out.
But NASA did the maths and worked out that, while the sun points to the Virgo constellation for a period of 45 days, it only points to Scorpius for 7 days, before moving into Ophiuchus for the next 18.
A more accurate representation of the Zodiac would be:
- Jan 20 – Feb 16 = Capricorn
- Feb 16 – Mar 11 = Aquarius
- Mar 11 – Apr 18 = Pisces
- Apr 18 – May 13 = Aries
- May 13 – Jun 21 = Taurus
- Jun 21 – Jul 20 = Gemini
- Jul 20 – Aug 10 = Cancer
- Aug 10 – Sep 16 = Leo
- Sep 16 – Oct 30 = Virgo
- Oct 30 – Nov 23 = Libra
- Nov 23 – Nov 29 = Scorpio
- Nov 29 – Dec 17 = Ophiuchus
- Dec 17 – Jan 20 = Sagittarius
However, to the people undergoing a total identity crisis over this, NASA offers this rather scathing response:
“Did you recently hear that NASA changed the zodiac signs? Nope, we definitely didn’t…” the agency posted yesterday on its Tumblr.
“Here at NASA, we study astronomy, not astrology,” it continues. “We didnt change any zodiac signs, we just did the math.”
“Astrology is something else,” NASA says. “It’s not science. No one has shown that astrology can be used to predict the future or describe what people are like based on their birth dates.”
