Not Taurus, but Gemini: NASA told how the zodiac signs have shifted over 3000 years
The world has not seen such stormy rivers of leaking carcasses and pillows so weeping to such an extent since the premiere of Titanic. But, as it usually happens, it all started corny and simple. There was no sign of trouble that morning. The planet lived an ordinary life: in New York, Michaels and Jacobs, shouting loudly, traded stocks, in Baku, smiling Ali sold delicious fruits at the bazaar, and an old locksmith Nazar Semenovich from Kondopoga destroyed the remnants of cherry tincture with intense sips before leaving home. Birds sang, vapers smoked ("It's steam, it's not forbidden!"), and the elections of deputies of municipal assemblies once again took place with predictable results.
But still on you, working people, get a grenade under your gut, as they say! What to pull, a truly terrible thing has happened. Later, this day will be called black in the editorial offices of all women's magazines in the world: on the NASA SpacePlace educational portal, the world community was reminded that the position of the constellations (including the zodiacal ones) relative to the ecliptic of the Sun is constantly changing due to precession.
But what do these mysterious terms mean?
(14 photos in total)
This scientific remark caused a violent reaction in the women's press: "NASA has updated astrological signs for the first time in 2000 years! 86% of us have changed the sign of the horoscope!" You can imagine what stress the news caused for those who believe in astrology. If the horoscope sign has changed, these unfortunate people will have to reconsider their whole life. Maybe even change her husband.
Admittedly, it turned out to be a notable trolling on the part of NASA.
NASA SpacePlace simply explains that astronomy and astrology are completely different things. Astrology is by no means a science. No one has proved that with the help of astrology it is possible to predict the future or to characterize a person only on the basis of his date of birth. This is a completely stupid assumption. In principle, most people understand this. This is understood even by those who like to read their "astrological forecast" or "horoscope" for the day every day like fairy tales. But there are exceptions. In some particularly neglected cases, people even make important life decisions taking into account the position of the stars in the sky — for example, they compare the zodiac signs of different people to determine their compatibility.
NASA SpacePlace gives a brief summary of what the zodiac and zodiac constellations are.
Zodiac (from the Greek "circle of animals") is a belt near the ecliptic, along which the visible annual movement of the Sun occurs, as well as a sequence of sections into which this belt is divided. While the Sun moves almost strictly along the ecliptic, different constellations periodically shift north or south of the ecliptic. The ecliptic passes through 13 constellations: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, Pisces and Ophiuchus — but they decided to ignore the latter for convenience.
When the Earth, the Sun and the constellation are approximately on the same imaginary line, astrologers believe that at this time "the Sun is in such and such a constellation."
In ancient times, astronomers did not fully understand how the Earth, the Sun and the stars moved. They did not understand the scale of the universe, but they still did not give up trying to find some kind of pattern. They tried hard to figure out what they see in the starry sky. Thanks to the rich human imagination, astrology quite harmoniously fit into many ancient religions.
People imagined that constellations could be important symbols, tell stories about their gods and serve as an illustration of myths, ancient stories and legends. Echoes of those ancient pagan religions and myths are now being observed in the form of "horoscopes" in women's magazines.
The concept of the zodiac and zodiac constellations was first introduced in Babylon about 3000 years ago. Since Babylon used a calendar of 12 months based on the phases of the Moon, it was very convenient to divide the zodiac into 12 equal parts that correspond to the months.
According to Babylonian sources, they numbered 13 zodiac constellations, so one had to be abandoned for convenience. Unfortunately, even after that, some of the selected dozen did not fit well into the allotted 1/12 part of the year and went beyond their segment. For example, the Sun passes against the background of the constellation Virgo for 45 days, against the background of Scorpio — 7 days, against the background of Ophiuchus — 18 days. All this was simplified, and the Ophiuchus was thrown out altogether.
After 3,000 years, the picture has changed a little more. The fact is that when the Earth rotates, there is a precession of the Earth's axis with a period of 25,800 years.
Precession with a period of 25,800 years occurs under the influence of the gravity of the Moon, the Sun and the heterogeneity of the density of mass distribution inside the Earth.
The ancient astronomers did not know this, so they did not assume the displacement of the zodiacal constellations relative to the calendar year. But that's exactly what happened. Therefore, the current picture of the zodiac is slightly different from the one calculated 3000 years ago.
Women's magazines publish a real table of horoscope signs (by calendar year dates) with adjustments for precession as of 2016. For example, those born on August 4 considered themselves Lions (or Lionesses), but with the updated dates of the horoscope they became Cancers.
Capricorn: January 20 — February 16 Aquarius: February 16 — March 11 Pisces: March 11 — April 18 Aries: April 18 — May 13 Taurus: May 13 — June 21 Gemini: June 21 — July 20 Cancer: July 20 — August 10 Leo: August 10 — September 16 Virgo: September 16 — October 30 Libra: October 30 — November 23 Scorpio: November 23 — November 29 Ophiuchus: November 29 — December 17 Sagittarius: December 17 — January 20
Well, the trolls from NASA SpacePlace note that the accuracy of the "horoscopes" will not change from the precession corrections. It was zero, and it will remain so. Unfortunately, part of the population will not stop looking for magical advice for their lives. For example, 21% of UK residents read horoscopes "often" or "very often", and 25% of respondents consider astrology a "very scientific" discipline. Surprisingly, even scientific journals sometimes publish works on astrology.
Well, we can only hope that fans of horoscopes will quickly recover from the blow of insidious scientists from NASA.
Keywords: Cosmopolitan | NASA | Astronomy | Women | Magazines | Stars | Zodiac | Constellations