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A close-up view of a spectacular jet (red) popping out of a busy region of star formation in Orion. All of the red wisps, knots and filaments are associated with jets from young stars, which in this figure are coloured orange - Source: Reuters -
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An American astronomer has caused a stir by suggesting the signs of the Zodiac are all out by about a month.
Professor Parke Kunkle of the Minneapolis Community and Technical College says the current Zodiac chart is outdated and inaccurate because of the way the Earth wobbles on its axis.
He even suggests the need to introduce a new 13th star sign to the Zodiac chart.
Colin James from Auckland's Stardome Observatory told TV ONE's Breakfast this morning that the signs of the Zodiac are based on real phenomena.
"There is a path in the sky we call the ecliptic path ... the sun moves through the sky against the background constellations, so the Zodiac constellations are any constellations the sun passes through."
James said the Earth-wobbling-on-its axis phenomena Kuncle has spoken of is very real and is called "procession".
"As the Earth is spinning on its axis it is wobbling slightly," he said.
However he said it is not something we would notice and that it takes about 26,000 years for the Earth to go through the full processional cycle.
"But over a period of generations there would be some noticeable change."
James gives the example of the Polaris star in the Northern hemisphere. "It's on the North celestial pole, but in about 200 years time it will drift off the North celestial pole because of procession.
"Where the Zodiac used to have 12 constellations, now a 13th one has drifted into the path of the sun."
He says, officially, there is in fact a 13th star sign as the sun does pass through the constellation of Ophiuchus.
"But it's been there for a long time, it's not a new thing."
He says records of a 13th star sign have been around since 150AD and there was a resurgence of trying to add the 13th sign into the Zodiac calendar in the 1970s.
However he says the occurrence of the sun passing through Ophiuchus only happens for about four days in early December.
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