NASA says it did not update the Zodiac, and that astrology is not science

There were confusing reports and social media shares that NASA had a new and improved version of the Zodiac, one that more accurately represented the positions of the constellations. This was apparently the first such effort in over 2000 years. Online news sites such as Cosmopolitan even published a list of revised dates for the new Zodiac signs. The dates picked by Cosmopolitan were never released by NASA, and may have originated in older articles discussing precession, a known phenomenon where the zodiac moves around the sky. https://twitter.com/Cosmopolitan/status/776839635494461441 NASA never made such an announcement. The source of the confusion was an article meant for children that explained the constellations. The article makes it very clear that astrology is not astronomy, and that astrology is not science. The positions of stars in the skies during the time of birth can neither be used to predict the future nor assess the personality of an individual. According to NASA, people enjoy reading horoscopes for the same reasons fantasy fiction is fun. https://twitter.com/NASA/status/778293791497285632 NASA posted on tumblr, that they do not deal in astrology, and that they just did the math and never updated the Zodiac. Being born under a sign means that the sign is overhead in a straight line from the Earth to the Sun. The constellations are all different sizes and shapes, and so the Sun takes different amounts of time to pass through these constellations. The Sun crosses Virgo over a period of 45 days, and crosses over Scorpius over a period of just 7 days. These are the extreme examples, the longest and shortest the Sun takes to cross a constellation. Additionally, the Sun travels through thirteen constellations, and not 12. Between Cancer and Scorpius is the constellation that the Babylonians dropped from the Zodiac, Ophiuchus. [caption id=“attachment_336448” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Image: NASA[/caption] So there is no need to panic, NASA has not updated the Zodiac, and your star sign has not changed. The same may not hold true for the Hindu calendar though. Nothing is Blue is a fascinating fantasy fiction read by the astro physicist Biman Nath. The story explores the lack of acceptance of new astronomical discoveries by those who controlled the calendar system in India, and how there is a traditional lack of acceptance of the fact that stars can change their positions in the sky.