What happened?
A few days ago, on the sites of English-language glossy magazines like Marie Claire, Cosmopolitan and Glamor, there were notes that NASA changed the signs of the zodiac and introduced a new, thirteenth sign. The authors of the articles reported that 86% of people misrepresent the zodiac sign under which they were born.
Oh. It's true?
No that's not true. In fact, NASA hasn't changed anything. All refer to the NASA Space Place children's education site for the "NASA statement". On January 13, 2016, a publication about the signs of the zodiac was released on this site. 9 months later, this article was noticed by a journalist.
And what was in this article? Have your zodiac signs really changed?
Promotional video:
Not really. Let's try to summarize the essence. There is astronomy - a science that studies the Universe and, in particular, celestial bodies. There is astrology - a set of unscientific ideas about how heavenly bodies affect the life of people. One would think that astronomers and astrologers look at the structure of the universe in the same way, just some draw scientific conclusions from this, while others - mystical. But in reality, things are a little more complicated, and the situation with the zodiac signs is a good example.
So what about the zodiac signs? And what is this?
A brief retelling of an article on the children's NASA website:
From the Earth it seems that the Sun revolves around us - in ancient times, people believed that it was so. On its way, the Sun passes in front of the constellations - the belt of these constellations is called the zodiac.
Now imagine an arrow, as in the "Field of Miracles", which comes from the Earth, passes through the Sun and points to the constellations in the belt. Let's say this arrow now points to the constellation Virgo, then as the Earth moves around the Sun, it will move to Libra, then to Scorpio, and so on in a circle.
This system was invented by the ancient Babylonians. They divided the Sun's apparent path into 12 equal 30-degree sections - like a pizza or a pie. They already had a lunar calendar of 12 months, so for each month there was one constellation, one zodiac sign. In fact, there were 13 constellations in the belt, but the Babylonians threw out Ophiuchus - for even counting.
If a person was born, for example, between July 23 and August 23, when the Sun passed the constellation Leo, it was believed that he was born under the sign of Leo. The most famous modern calendar of the zodiac signs is being built.
And what's the catch?
If you look at all this from the point of view of astronomy, there are several tricks at once. The constellations on the visible path of the Sun are not 12, but 13 - Ophiuchus, as we said, was thrown out. People who were born between November 29 and December 17 can safely consider themselves Ophiuchus. But in a regular newspaper you will not find the horoscope you need.
The second catch is this. The Earth's axis gradually changes its direction under the influence of the attraction of the Moon and the Sun. So the drum in the heavenly "Field of Miracles", which we wrote about above, gradually moves out. The Babylonians looked at it 3 thousand years ago, and now everything has changed a little. So people who considered themselves, for example, Scorpios, may well turn out to be Libra. This is what a gradual displacement of the earth's axis looks like (precession):
The third catch. It is convenient to divide the visible path of the Sun into 12 equal pieces, but if you look at astrology through the eyes of an astronomer, they are not equal. Let's say an imaginary arrow points to the constellation Virgo as much as 45 days, and to the constellation Scorpio - only seven.
I must say that all of the above facts have been known for a very long time, and the media is not the first time writing about "new signs of the zodiac". This is an undulating process. The last big wave was in 2011.
So the horoscopes were all lying?
The answer for those who believe in astrology. No, they didn't lie. Astrology and astronomy are different things. In response to the non-existent "NASA statement" on the AstroStyle website, they wrote, for example, that astrology focuses not on real, but on symbolic constellations. So it's okay.
The answer for those who do not believe in astrology. Yes, they lied. And even if astrologers change their idea of the structure of the Universe, their predictions from this will not become more true. So it's okay.
Dates with 13th zodiac sign:
Capricorn: January 19 - February 15
Aquarius: February 16 - March 11
Pisces: March 12 - April 18
Aries: April 19 - May 13
Taurus: May 14 - June 19
Gemini: June 20 - July 20
Cancer: July 21 - August 9
Leo: August 10 - September 15
Virgo: September 16 - October 30
Libra: October 31 - November 22
Scorpio: November 23 - 29
Ophiuchus: November 30 - December 17
Sagittarius: December 18 - January 18