What's your sign? That easy-to-answer pickup line might be a little confusing, since astronomers now say the dates used to delineate zodiac signs need to be adjusted by about a month.
The signs of the zodiac were created by the ancient Babylonians, who believed that whatever constellation the sun was "in" when you were born helped shape who you are. But a "wobble" in the Earth's rotation means that the sun's placement in, say, late December is no longer where it was when the Babylonians created the system.
"When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces," Parke Kunkle of the Minnesota Planetarium Society told the Minneapolis Star Tribune.
Even more shocking: Kunkle and his colleagues say there should be a 13th sign, Ophiuchus. That's the constellation the sun is in from Nov. 29 to Dec. 17. Apparently, the Babylonians skipped Ophiuchus because they wanted there to be only 12 signs.
Astronomers have been saying for years that the zodiac signs in wide use don't really reflect the heavens above. But the new announcement has shocked some people who closely identify with their astrological signs -- even if they don't always believe what newspaper horoscopes say.
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