NASA Doesn't Care About Your Zodiac Confusion

OMG, did your star sign change? Probably, and you didn't even know it. A controversy erupted on social media this month after Cosmopolitan picked up on a NASA post aimed at kids about how the signs of the zodiac came to be, reports the Christian Science Monitor. Because the sky has changed over the eons, the constellations no longer line up as the ancient Babylonians first mapped them 3,000 years ago, explained NASA. That means the astrological signs are now about a month off—theoretically ruining tattoos across the globe—and that "a whopping 86% of us now have a different sign," wrote Charlotte Warwick in Cosmo. (Her post provides the new dates.) What's more, the space agency noted a 13^th star sign at the end of the calendar: Ophiuchus (tucked between Scorpio and Sagittarius).

OK, so what does that mean for those who faithfully follow their horoscope? Nothing, says NASA, because astrology is fake. "Astronomy is not astrology," the space agency writes on Tumblr. "We didn't change any zodiac signs, we just did the math." Tell that to hot-headed Scorpios (now Nov. 23-Nov. 29) who have been told they are gentle-souled Libras (Oct. 20-Nov. 23). Or to those under the new impossible-to-pronounce sign Ophiuchus (Nov. 29-Dec. 17). "Your new talents include architecture and snake-bearing," writes Ben Guarino in the Washington Post. He explains that the Babylonians ditched the 13^th constellation, unable to fit them all into 12 months. At least there's some good news for those under Ophiuchus: serpents make very cool tats. (This might blow over: The Minnesota Planetarium Society discussed the issue years ago.)