NASA Confirms That The ‘13th Zodiac Sign’ Will Not Change Yours
Image via Shutterstock
Last week, news outlets recycled—yet again—a detail about NASA “confirming” a “13th sign” called Ophiuchus. The story riles up audiences every year it is published as it hints at their astrology signs not being accurate, so it is little wonder why it keeps getting shared. NASA has now come forward to clarify how the zodiac signs have always been inaccurate and that there shouldn’t be any change in your zodiac sign.
The space agency published a blog post to clear up the confusion in detail. “Here at NASA, we study astronomy, not astrology. We didn’t change any zodiac signs, we just did the math,” the post read.
NASA explained that over three millennia ago, the Babylonians separated the zodiac, made up of constellations of stars that lie in an imaginary line from Earth through the sun and into space, in 12 equal parts.
So, when Earth orbited the sun, the hot star seemed to pass through the 12 constellations. Since the Babylonians had a 12-month calendar according to the phases of the moon, they decided to pick 12 constellations for each month.
“But even according to the Babylonians’ own ancient stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac,” NASA wrote, “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.”
NASA highlighted that in the 3,000 years since the creation of the zodiac, “The sky has shifted because Earth’s axis (North Pole) doesn’t point in quite the same direction.”
The federal agency added that as the zodiac hasn’t been accurate from the start, the shift doesn’t really make a difference with the signs that have already been established.
It also stated that the constellations vary in sizes and shapes. Therefore, the sun would spend different time lengths on each constellation instead of a full month. “The line from Earth through the sun points to Virgo for 45 days, but it points to Scorpius for only seven days,” NASA pointed out.
The Babylonians “ignored the fact that the sun actually moves through 13 constellations, not 12” and assigned “those 12 constellations equal amounts of time,” NASA elaborated. This suggests that the star signs have never been assigned accurately, and so the discovery of Ophiuchus isn’t a big deal, after all.
👀 We see your comments about a zodiac story that re-emerges every few years. No, we did not change the zodiac.
— NASA (@NASA) July 17, 2020
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
[via DAZED, cover image via Shutterstock]
Also check out these recent news
