zodiac
Sign in to saveThe zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac belt appear the Moon and the brightest planets, along their orbital planes. The zodiac is divided along the ecliptic into 12 equal parts, called "signs", each occupying 30° of celestial longitude. These signs roughly correspond to the astronomical constellations with the following modern names: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius
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The zodiac is a band of sky that stretches about 8 degrees on either side of the Sun's apparent path through the heavens, and it contains the Moon and the brightest planets as they orbit. Astronomers divide this band into 12 equal sections called signs—each 30 degrees wide—that roughly correspond to named constellations like Aries, Taurus, and Gemini.
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Article
18 sectionsContents
- <span class="anchor" id="Etymology"></span><span class="anchor" id="Names"></span>Name
- Usage
- History
- Early history
- Hebrew astronomy and astrology
- Hellenistic and Roman era
- Hindu zodiac
- Middle Ages
- Medieval Islamic era
- Early modern
- Twelve signs
- Constellations
- Precession of the equinoxes
- In modern astronomy
- Unicode characters
- See also
- References
- External links
The zodiac is a belt-shaped region of the sky that extends approximately 8° north and south celestial latitude of the ecliptic – the apparent path of the Sun across the celestial sphere over the course of the year. Within this zodiac belt appear the Moon and the brightest planets, along their orbital planes. The zodiac is divided along the ecliptic into 12 equal parts, called "signs", each occupying 30° of celestial longitude. These signs roughly correspond to the astronomical constellations with the following modern names: Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius, and Pisces.
The signs have been used to determine the time of the year by identifying each sign with the days of the year the Sun is in the respective sign. In Western astrology, and formerly astronomy, the time of each sign is associated with different attributes. The zodiacal system and its angular measurement in 360 sexagesimal degree (°) originated with Babylonian astronomy during the 1st millennium BC, probably during the Achaemenid Empire. It was communicated into Greek astronomy by the 2nd century BC, as well as into developing the Hindu zodiac. Due to the precession of the equinoxes, the time of year that the Sun is in a given constellation has changed since Babylonian times, and the point of March equinox has moved from Aries into Pisces.