For all those who have been worried about a changed zodiac sign, NASA has clarified that it has not changed your zodiac.
NASA has said that "We didn't change any zodiac sign. We just did the math." Last week, it was reported by Cosmopolitan that NASA has 'sneakily added' a 13th zodiac, Ophiuchus, so the zodiac of every person needs to be re-determined based on new calculations and went on to provide a revised list of the zodiac.
Many believers of astrology flooded social media about their doubts regarding not knowing one's own identity anymore but NASA declared that it's far-fetched that stars that are light-years away from the Earth have anything to do with the mundane life or the character of human beings.
The rumors were based on a children's educational article on NASA Space Place titled 'First Things First: Astrology is not Astronomy'. The article provides the basis on which Babylonians developed the zodiac system, 3000 years back based on their observations of the night sky.
It elucidates the flaws in the system and goes on to point how such an ancient system does not hold any significance, whatsoever on the life of human beings. The article points out that at the time when the zodiac system was developed, very little was known to humans about the universe and about the movement of the celestial bodies.
It is understandable that the Babylonians, who were enthusiastic star gazers, tried to make sense of their observations, of the night sky at different times of the year. They tried to validate their conjectures and myths through the celestial events they observed.
It is worth mentioning here that NASA has stated that the Babylonians were aware of the 13 constellations but they chose to have 12 zodiac signs as it fit their 12-month calendar, that they had already developed based on lunar phases.
Now, the 12 zodiac system ignores the fact that the Sun is not aligned with all the constellations for equal durations of time. That's because each constellation is different in shape and size. Moreover, the earth's axis has changed over all these years and we see the sky quite differently from what the Babylonians saw.
