Did you know that there are actually 13 astrological signs instead of 12? This means that 86 percent of all people were born under a different sign.
This is old new yet Capricorns, Sagittarii, and everyone in between flipped out and incorrectly blamed NASA.
However, the space agency would like everyone to know that they didn’t actually change anything.
On their webpage, NASA posted detailed explanation about the changes in the zodiac. First things first, they gave explanation on astronomy and astrology. According to them, the former is a science that intelligent people devote their lives to, and the latter is hooey.
“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 is something else. It’s not science. No one has shown that astrology can be used to predict the future or describe what people are like based only on their birth date. Still, like reading fantasy stories, many people enjoy reading their “astrological forecast” or “horoscope” in the newspaper every day,” the agency explains.
“Here at NASA, we study astronomy, not astrology. We didn’t 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.”
In fact, the Babylonians are the ones to be blamed for the mistake because they were lazy! When they came up with the zodiac signs, they left one out on purpose and used 12 signs instead of 13.
This was more convenient because it fit their calendar of 12 lunar cycles per year. But that means everyone who’s adopted their astrological calendar and associated personality profiles in the millennia since have been wrong.
NASA pointed out the error and offered up a correction. The new zodiac calendar has some big changes since not only there are 13 signs now, the dates have changed in some cases.
The space agency updated the calendar to reflect the actual amount of time the sun spends aligned with each constellation, which has changed since the Babylonian’s time thanks to the Earth’s tilt.
For example, Scorpio only takes up seven days of the year and the new sign, Ophiuchus, takes up 19 days.
“The constellations are different sizes and shapes, so the sun spends different lengths of time lined up with each one. 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, we didn’t change any zodiac signs…we just did the math,” the article says.
And what does this mean for you? Well, here’s what the ~new~ star sign dates look like according to NASA’s calculations:
Capricorn: Jan 20 – Feb 16
Aquarius: Feb 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 – Aug 10
Leo: Aug 10 – Sept 16
Virgo: Sept 16 – Oct 30
Libra: Oct 30 – Nov 23
Scorpio: Nov 23 – Nov 29
Ophiuchus: Nov 29 – Dec 17
Sagittarius: Dec 17 – Jan 20
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A professional writer with over a decade of incessant writing skills. Her topics of interest and expertise range from health, nutrition and psychology.