60 Fun Facts About Aquarius

What does the figure of Aquarius carry?

The Latin name means water-bearer; the Greeks called him Hydrokhoos, which means the same thing.

Aquarius is which sign in the order of the zodiac?

It sits between Capricorn and Pisces, in the depths of northern winter.

Aquarius belongs to which element, despite the water jar?

Gemini and Libra are the other air signs; the water pours from the jar, but the sign is not a water sign.

Which planet was the traditional ruler of Aquarius before the 20th century?

Modern astrologers hand the job to Uranus, discovered in 1781.

Which planet is Aquarius's ruler in modern astrology?

Traditional astrologers still use Saturn, which it shared with Capricorn.

What is the modality of Aquarius?

It is the fixed air sign, sitting in the middle of northern winter.

Which sign is opposite Aquarius on the zodiac wheel?

Both are fixed signs; the lion faces the water-bearer across the chart.

Under the tropical zodiac the Sun is in Aquarius between roughly which dates?

The Sun only reaches the constellation Aquarius around February 16.

Astronomically, when does the Sun really pass through the constellation Aquarius (as of 2002)?

Sidereal astrology, which tracks the stars, puts the sign from February 15 to March 14.

Aquarius belongs to which polarity group?

The odd-numbered fire and air signs are the positive ones.

What is Aquarius called in Hindu (Vedic) astrology?

Kumbha means a water pot, and it is likewise a fixed air sign ruled by Shani, or Saturn.

Roughly how long does an astrological age, such as the Age of Aquarius, last?

It is one twelfth of the roughly 25,900-year wobble of Earth's axis.

Which age does the Age of Aquarius follow, since astrological ages run backwards through the zodiac?

When it starts is a matter of endless dispute among astrologers.

Which 1967 musical opened with a song declaring 'the dawning of the Age of Aquarius'?

The Fifth Dimension's medley of the song topped the US charts in 1969.

Which star is the brightest in Aquarius?

It edges out Alpha by a hair, 2.91 to 2.94; both are yellow supergiants about 520 to 540 light-years away.

What is the proper name of Beta Aquarii?

The name comes from the Arabic for 'luck of lucks'; its neighbour Sadalmelik is 'luck of the king'.

The two brightest stars of Aquarius are both what kind of star?

They were once hot blue B-type stars 5 to 9 times the Sun's mass, and both move perpendicular to the Milky Way's plane.

The Y-shaped group of Gamma, Pi, Eta and Zeta Aquarii is historically called what?

Some modern observers call it the Steering Wheel instead.

In Ptolemy's depiction, the water-bearer's stream ends at which bright star of Piscis Austrinus?

The stream is more than 20 stars long, pouring down to the mouth of the Southern Fish.

What does Sadachbia, the name of Gamma Aquarii, mean?

Aquarius is full of 'lucky' star names from Arabic astronomy.

The ultracool dwarf TRAPPIST-1 made headlines in 2017 for having how many Earth-sized planets?

As many as three of them may sit in the habitable zone where liquid water could exist.

Roughly how far away is TRAPPIST-1?

Its radius is only slightly larger than Jupiter's, and it is older than the Solar System.

The TRAPPIST telescope that found the planets is located at which observatory in Chile?

The Belgian-led team was headed by Michaël Gillon of the University of Liège; the name is a nod to Trappist beer.

Gliese 876 in Aquarius, 15 light-years away, holds what distinction?

It has four planets, including a rocky one about 6.6 times Earth's mass.

Which glowing gas shell from a dying star in Aquarius is the closest such object to Earth, about 650 light-years away?

It covers a quarter of a square degree, making it the largest planetary nebula in the sky as well.

NGC 7009 in Aquarius was named after which planet by Lord Rosse, because of its ring-like protrusions?

It glows blue-green in a telescope around an 11th-magnitude central star.

Messier 73 in Aquarius was reclassified from an open cluster to what?

Its six main stars simply are not close enough together in space to count as a cluster.

NGC 7252, a tangle of stars from two colliding galaxies in Aquarius, is nicknamed after what?

It is the Atoms-for-Peace galaxy, named after Eisenhower's 1953 speech.

The Eta Aquariid meteor shower, peaking in early May, is debris from which famous visitor?

Chinese astronomers first recorded the shower in the year 401.

The Eta Aquariids peak on roughly which dates?

They radiate from the Water Jar at around 35 meteors an hour, with fireballs common a few days later.

The Delta Aquariids are unusual in having what feature?

One radiant is in southern Aquarius, the other in the Circlet of Pisces.

Which Babylonian god did the constellation represent, shown holding an overflowing vase?

The Babylonians called it GU.LA, 'The Great One', and linked it to their destructive floods.

What did the Babylonians call the constellation Aquarius?

It contained the winter solstice in the Early Bronze Age and ruled the 'Way of Ea', the southern part of the Sun's path.

In Egyptian astronomy, what was said to happen when Aquarius put his jar into the river?

The flood marked the start of spring, and Aquarius got the credit.

In Greek myth, Aquarius is most often identified with which beautiful Trojan youth carried off by Zeus?

He became cupbearer to the gods, replacing Hebe.

In what form did Zeus (or his servant) carry the youth off to Olympus?

Neighbouring Aquila, the eagle, is said to be that bird.

The cupbearer's father, Tros, gave his name to which city?

Zeus compensated him with a pair of immortal horses, delivered by Hermes.

What did Zeus give the boy's father in compensation for taking him?

They were 'the same that carry the immortals', fast enough to run over water and standing grain.

On Olympus the youth replaced which goddess as cupbearer to the gods?

Hebe was relieved of the duty when she married Heracles.

The largest moon of which planet is named after Zeus's cupbearer?

Simon Marius named it; it is the biggest moon in the Solar System, larger than Mercury.

Aquarius is also linked with which son of Prometheus, who built a ship with his wife Pyrrha to survive a flood?

They drifted nine days before landing on Mount Parnassus, a Greek Noah story.

Which king of Athens, said to have offered water rather than wine to the gods, is linked to Aquarius?

Cecrops was half man, half serpent, and judged the contest between Athena and Poseidon.

In Chinese astronomy, the stream of water from the Water Jar was seen as what?

The Army of Yu-Lin numbered 45 stars, the most of any Chinese constellation.

Aquarius sits in a region of sky nicknamed for its watery constellations. What is it called?

Cetus the whale, Pisces the fish and Eridanus the river all swim there.

Which gemstone is the February birthstone, covering most of Aquarius season?

Tibetans consider it sacred to the Buddha and string it into prayer beads.

Between which two constellations does Aquarius lie?

It is an equatorial constellation, straddling the celestial equator.

What modern nickname do some observers give the Y-shaped 'Water Jar' asterism in Aquarius?

None of the constellation's four brightest stars beats magnitude 2.8, despite its size and place on the zodiac.

Roughly how many light-years away is Sadalsuud, the brightest star in Aquarius?

It has swollen to about 50 times the Sun's diameter and shines some 2,200 times brighter, at an age of about 56 million years.

The name Sadalsuud comes from an Arabic phrase meaning what?

Its neighbour Alpha Aquarii is Sadalmelik, and Gamma Aquarii's Sadachbia means 'lucky stars of the tents'.

How long is the orbital period of the double star Zeta Aquarii?

Both components are white F-type stars, and they are currently drifting further apart.

Which Greek-lettered star in Aquarius received the proper name Shatabhisha in September 2025?

Kappa is Situla, Xi is Bunda and Theta is sometimes called Ancha; Shatabhisha is a red M-type star of magnitude 3.74.

How many planets orbit Gliese 876, the nearby red dwarf in Aquarius?

One is a terrestrial world 6.6 times Earth's mass; their orbital periods range from 2 to 124 days.

Gliese 849 b in Aquarius was the first known example of what kind of exoplanet?

It has 0.99 Jupiter masses and takes 1,852 days to orbit its red dwarf host.

Up to what number of TRAPPIST-1's seven planets could sit in the habitable zone?

NASA announced the system in February 2017 and called it a major step toward finding life beyond Earth.

Roughly how many light-years away is Messier 2, the rich globular cluster in Aquarius?

At magnitude 6.5 it shows in small telescopes, but resolving individual stars needs a 100 mm aperture; M72 is farther out at 56,000 light-years.

Who discovered the Helix Nebula, most likely before 1824?

Pop culture has nicknamed it the 'Eye of God' and the 'Eye of Sauron'.

Which spiral galaxy in Aquarius is a favourite target for amateurs hunting supernovae?

It shines at magnitude 10.7; NGC 7252, by contrast, is the merger remnant nicknamed Atoms-for-Peace.

In which year did Chinese astronomers first record the Eta Aquariid meteor shower?

The shower runs from 21 April to about 12 May with roughly 35 meteors an hour at peak, and fireballs are common just after.

According to Nicholas Campion's survey, most sources place the start of the Age of Aquarius in which century?

Twenty-nine claims backed the 20th century, with the 24th century second on twelve; estimates overall range from 1447 to 3597 AD.

Which psychologist discussed the 'age of Aquarius' in his book Aion?

A more precise precession figure gives 25,772 years per full cycle and 2,147.5 years per astrological age.