What you really need to know about the ‘13th zodiac sign’, Ophiuchus

If you’re in any way interested in zodiac signs and you’ve been on Twitter over the last couple of days, you’ve probably heard about “Ophiuchus” (oh-few-cuss), the so-called “13th sign” that some sources are claiming has recently been added to the zodiac. What does that mean? Well, basically you could have been reading the wrong horoscope your whole life, because the new addition fucks up all of the currently-accepted dates aligned with each zodiac sign. 

For example, if you were born August 24 to September 22, you were previously considered a Virgo, but now you’d be a Virgo if you were born September 16 to October 30. If you were born November 23 to December 21, you were previously considered a Sagittarius; now you would be an Ophiuchus. Et cetera, et cetera.

In any case, the changes don’t really matter, because it’s generally accepted by astrologers that there’s no such thing as the 13th zodiac sign. In fact, the concept has been debunked numerous times over the years.

Here, we’ve gathered what you need to know about Ophiuchus and it’s dubious past in the zodiac.

WHERE IS THE NEW INFO COMING FROM?

The recent “unearthing” of the new star sign appears to originate with tabloid newspapers such as The Sun, which pointed to a 2016 article on a no-longer-updated Nasa blog this week, as evidence that your horoscope could be wrong. 

Specifically, the Nasa article points out that the Babylonians, who lived over 3,000 years ago, made some errors in their original conception of the 12-sign zodiac, incorrectly leaving out Ophiuchus, which the sun is aligned with for about 18 days per year. 

It also explains that things have changed due to a shift in Earth’s axis, which means the planet no longer faces in exactly the same direction, accounting for the changing of the dates aligned with the zodiac.

BUT THIS ISN’T THE FIRST TIME OPHIUCHUS HAS BEEN IN THE NEWS

The discovery that our zodiac signs have been wrong all along makes for a pretty good headline, which might be why it’s made the news multiple times over the years, from 2011, to 2016, to just last year. Each time, Ophiuchus is implicated in a pretty much identical story.

Unfortunately – or fortunately, depending on how attached you are to your particular zodiac sign – the news has been debunked just as many times, as in this New Scientist article from 2016.

SO WHAT IS OPHIUCHUS, ACTUALLY?

As a self-proclaimed astrologer told Yahoo Life on April 7 this year, Ophiuchus “is a constellation located northwest of the center of the Milky Way, somewhere near Scorpio and Sagittarius... directly opposite the extremely prominent constellation Orion, and because of its location, it is actually usually obscured from view at most times in most parts of the world.” 

This could be part of the reason – as well as the shifting of Earth’s axis – that the Babylonians, or other ancient astrologers, left this particular constellation out of their interpretation of the heavens. 

But it’s important to remember that “constellations are not the same as signs”, which are defined by two main zodiac systems: the tropical zodiac and the sidereal zodiac.

WHAT’S THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN TROPICAL AND SIDEREAL ASTROLOGY?

Basically, the tropical zodiac (which is used by the vast majority of Western astrologers) lines up the signs with the changing of seasons at equinoxes and solstices. The sidereal, or “visible” zodiac – which is often used in Hindu astrology – on the other hand, sees the location of each sign changing constantly, based on fixed stars.

It’s worth noting that neither zodiac system commonly acknowledges a 13th sign.

HOW HAS THE INTERNET REACTED?

Once news about the changing zodiac signs hit Twitter, it was (predictably) spread around and started generating controversy, outrage, and most importantly memes: from people’s refusal to acknowledge their “new” star sign, to mockeries of Nasa for allegedly trying to change the zodiac once again.

View a selection of the best reactions below.