What is the zodiac? How is the zodiac determined?

The word zodiac comes from the Greek zodiakos, which means zoo. In the eyes of the Greeks, constellations are made up of various animals, which is the origin of the names of the twelve constellations. In astronomy, the orbit of the sun around the earth with the earth as the center is called the ecliptic. The width of the ecliptic is 16 degrees, 360 degrees around the earth. The ecliptic plane includes the orbits of all planets except Pluto, as well as the constellations, exactly every 30 degrees. Each interval has a constellation, a total of twelve constellations, called the "Zodiac".

Division on the ecliptic

The sun runs from west to east on the ecliptic and circles the sky once a year. There are twelve constellations on a belt on both sides of the ecliptic. They are Aries, Taurus, Gemini, Cancer, Leo, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces. People on earth can see them one after another in a year.

Babylonians observed these constellations for a long time, determined the ecliptic through observation, and divided the ecliptic into 12 equal parts, each equal part was 30 degrees, which was called 1 segment. The sun travels around the ecliptic in 12 months/cycle, so it travels on the ecliptic every month 1 segment. In the eyes of the ancients, the sun was Apollo, and its resting place must be a magnificent palace. Therefore, they called the 1 section of the ecliptic 1 palace. In this way, the section 12 on the ecliptic becomes the "zodiac". The names of the zodiac signs are similar to the 12 constellation near the zodiac signs, namely Aries, Taurus, Twin Uterus, Cancer, Lion, Virgo, Libra, Scorpio, Sagittarius, Capricorn, Aquarius and Pisces.