The online astrology community was up-in-arms last week when an old blog post by NASA resurfaced to reveal a 13th constellation in the Western astrological calendar. However, the space agency was quick to debunk all rumours, and added that the astrological calendar remains the same.
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Chennai:
The 13th constellation, Ophinicus (‘the serpent-bearer’), was mentioned in a 2016 blog post talking about the astrological calendar. A person’s zodiac sign is assigned based on the date in which the Sun travels through a specific constellation, and it was revealed that the Sun does travel through Ophinicus for a few days during October and November, which corresponds with Scorpio’s assigned dates.
The astrological calendar was made by the Babylonians 3,000 years ago, with 12 corresponding signs for their 12 months. The blog post by NASA reads, “But even according to the Babylonians' stories, there were 13 constellations in the zodiac. So, the Babylonians left out Ophiucus.”
The confusion has arisen due to the division of the sky based on the constellations, say astronomers. “The modern global astronomy community came together to make boundaries in the sky around these constellations. These boundaries are square-shaped. Since these boundaries are very strict, there are astrological issues when the Sun is between two constellations,” said Shweta Kulkarni, director of AstronEra and fellow of the Royal Astronomy Society of England.
While this will not affect Indian horoscopes, which are based on the moon and therefore more accurate, this has affected the Western astrological community. Some speculate that those born in the days of Ophinicus might fall under the category of a ‘cusp’ sign, while others say it might be a new sign. “We did not devise this system, and the modern astrological community has no systemic authority to include the new constellation into our astrological calendar. The cosmos is large and ever-expanding, and new planets are being discovered every day. If we say some planets affect us, these new planets will affect us too. Therefore, we must be open to this development,” said Chitra Mahesh, tarot card reader and astrology enthusiast.