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Your star sign has almost definitely changed

Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
Picture: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

Ninety-Eight per cent of people in the UK know what star sign they are.

The dates of ‘star signs’ were fixed over 2,000 years ago.

But since then, the constellations have drifted and you were probably not born under the stars that the typical guide says you were.

These are the traditional dates:

Aries: March 21 - April 19
Taurus: April 20 - May 20
Gemini: May 21 - June 20
Cancer: June 21 - July 22
Leo: July 23 - August 22
Virgo: August 23 - September 22
Libra: September 23 - October 22
Scorpio: October 23 - November 21
Sagittarius: November 22 - December 21
Capricorn: December 22 - January 19
Aquarius: January 20 - February 18
Pisces: February 19 - March 20

And here's the constellation that was actually sitting behind the sun when you were born.

It's probably not the same one - for 86 per cent of people.

Capricorn: January 21 - February 16
Aquarius: February 17 - March 12
Pisces: March 13 - April 18
Aries: April 19 - May 14
Taurus: May 15 - June 21
Gemini: June 22 - July 20
Cancer: July 21 - August 10
Leo: August 11 - September 16
Virgo: September 17 - October 31
Libra: November 1 - November 23
Scorpio: November 24 - November 29
Sagittarius: November 30 - December 18

The BBC's Stargazing Live explained the phenomenon behind this, called precession.

Dr Radmila Topalovic says:

The Earth is affected by the gravitational pull of the Moon and the Sun and they introduce a wobbling effect in the Earth.

That whole effect is called precession and the Earth itself behaves a little bit like a spinning top.

The Earth has a wobble like a spinning top would, once every 26,000 years roughly - which means the constellations have drifted a little.

There was also a 13th constellation that was left out (to neatly divide the zodiac into 12 parts). It's called Ophiuchus (the serpent bearer) and you can claim it if you were born between November 30 and December 18.

You just won't be able to read many horoscopes.

More:Science says star signs really do influence personality

More:Artist reimagines every sign of the zodiac as a monster and it's incredible

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