50 Fun Facts About Virgo

What does the Latin name Virgo mean?

The Greeks called the sign Parthenos, the same word used for the Parthenon's goddess Athena.

Virgo is which sign in the order of the zodiac?

It closes the first half of the zodiac, between Leo and Libra.

Which planet rules Virgo in traditional astrology?

Mercury pulls double duty, ruling Gemini as well; some astrologers also count Virgo as Mercury's sign of exaltation.

Virgo belongs to which classical element?

The story goes that Astraea was the last immortal to leave the Earth, which is why the sign is earthy.

Which sign sits directly opposite Virgo on the zodiac wheel?

Both are mutable signs, so they share the job of closing out a season.

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

The Sun only reaches the constellation Virgo itself around September 16.

Which degrees of the zodiac does Virgo span?

The 180th degree is the autumn equinox point, where Libra begins.

Virgo belongs to which polarity group of signs?

The negative signs are the even-numbered ones, making up the earth and water triplicities.

What is Virgo called in Hindu astrology?

Kanya also means maiden, and Hindu astrologers class it as an earth sign ruled by Budha, their Mercury.

Virgo is the largest constellation of the zodiac and the second-largest in the whole sky after which one?

Because it is so big, the Sun spends 44 days crossing it, longer than any other constellation.

How many days does the Sun take to cross the constellation Virgo, longer than any other?

From 1990 to 2062 that crossing runs from September 16 to October 30.

Which of these key points on the ecliptic lies within the boundaries of Virgo?

The spring equinox point sits in Pisces; the two are where the ecliptic crosses the celestial equator.

Which is the brightest star in Virgo?

Its Latin name means the maiden's ear of grain, which she holds in her hand.

What does the name of Virgo's brightest star mean in Latin?

The Babylonians called the same stars The Furrow, so the farming link is at least three thousand years old.

The mnemonic for finding Virgo's brightest star runs 'follow the arc to Arcturus and speed on to' what?

You start at the handle of the Big Dipper and keep curving.

Roughly how far away is Alpha Virginis, the constellation's brightest star?

It is really two egg-shaped stars whirling so close together they distort each other.

Which ancient astronomer is thought to have discovered precession using data from Alpha Virginis?

A temple at Thebes built in 3200 BC had been aligned on the star, and it had visibly drifted since.

Along with Arcturus and Denebola, Virgo's brightest star forms which seasonal asterism?

Add Cor Caroli and you get the Great Diamond.

Which planet last passed in front of Alpha Virginis, in 1783, and will next do so in 2197?

The star lies just over two degrees from the ecliptic, so the Moon covers it fairly often too.

Five of the constellation's brighter stars form an asterism known as what?

With Spica and Theta Virginis added, the whole figure makes a Y shape.

What is the proper name of Epsilon Virginis, meaning 'grape-gatherer'?

Its dawn rising once signalled the start of the grape harvest.

The constellation is famous for containing a huge cluster of what?

The Virgo Cluster has well over a thousand members and sits at the heart of our own supercluster.

Approximately how many members does the Virgo Cluster contain?

A 6-inch telescope will show around 160 of them on a clear night.

What is the larger structure, centred on the constellation's galaxy cluster, that includes our Local Group?

Our Local Group is being pulled toward it, a motion astronomers call the Virgocentric flow.

Which galaxy in Virgo hosted the first-ever direct image of a black hole, released in April 2019?

The Event Horizon Telescope image showed a glowing ring around a black hole of billions of solar masses.

Roughly what is the mass of the black hole at the centre of M87?

It is the most massive black hole in the Milky Way's immediate neighbourhood; ours is only about 4 million.

How many globular clusters orbit M87, compared with 150 to 200 for the Milky Way?

It is a supergiant elliptical with several trillion stars and a jet thousands of light-years long.

Which hat-named object, M104, lies about 10 degrees west of Virgo's brightest star?

Its dark dust lane and bulging middle, seen nearly edge-on, look like a wide-brimmed hat.

M104's hat-like look comes from a large central bulge and what other feature?

Spitzer later found its halo was far bigger than expected, suggesting a giant elliptical hiding under the brim.

Virgo contains 3C 273, notable as the first-ever identified example of what?

At magnitude 12.9 it is the most distant object an amateur with a modest telescope is likely to see, some 2.4 billion light-years away.

Roughly how far away is 3C 273?

It outshines its entire host galaxy more than 16 times over.

Chi Virginis hosts one of the most massive planets known, about how many times Jupiter's mass?

Above roughly 13 Jupiter masses an object would count as a brown dwarf instead.

Which Greek goddess of justice fled the corrupt Earth to become the constellation Virgo?

She was said to be the last immortal to live among humans; the asteroid 5 Astraea is named after her.

What was the goddess of justice usually shown holding, which became the constellation Libra?

Libra's scales sit right beside Virgo in the sky, so the maiden is often read as Justice herself.

The name of the justice goddess who became Virgo comes from the Greek word for what?

Her name was even proposed for the planet we now call Uranus.

Which harvest goddess, mother of Persephone, is one of the classical identifications of Virgo?

Roman writers called her Ceres, from which we get the word cereal.

Persephone was tricked into staying part of each year in the underworld by eating what?

Her yearly return was the Greeks' explanation for spring.

Which secret rites of the harvest goddess and her daughter promised initiates a happy afterlife?

They were held at Eleusis near Athens for well over a thousand years.

Which daughter of Icarius hanged herself in grief and became Virgo in Athenian myth?

Her father became Boötes and her dog Maera became Canis Minor.

Per Diodorus Siculus, Parthenos leapt from a cliff after her father's swine broke a valuable bottle of what?

Apollo caught the sisters and made them goddesses instead.

In the Babylonian MUL.APIN, part of Virgo was known by what name, for the goddess Shala's ear of grain?

Spica keeps the memory alive: it is Latin for an ear of grain, the furrow's main crop.

Western Virgo corresponded to which Babylonian constellation, shown as a goddess holding a palm branch?

Later drawings of Virgo occasionally still give her a palm frond.

In Egyptian tradition, the Sun's arrival in Virgo marked the start of what?

Wheat is the through-line: nearly every culture drew Virgo holding grain.

During the Middle Ages, Christians associated Virgo with whom?

In Mexican tradition the tilma of Our Lady of Guadalupe is said to map Virgo over her heart.

The ancient zodiac is said to have opened with which sign and closed with which?

The Sphinx has been read by some as a lion with a maiden's head, joining the end to the beginning.

The pulsar PSR B1257+12 in Virgo is famous as the first star found to have what?

Its three planets, found in 1992, are the first confirmed exoplanets, orbiting a dead star.

Between which two constellations does Virgo lie in the zodiac?

The lion is to the west and the scales to the east.

Virgo is one of three Earth signs. Which two signs share the element?

The Earth link is traced to Astraea, the last immortal to leave Earth at the end of the Silver Age before becoming the constellation.

Which star in Virgo has a confirmed planet about 7.5 times the mass of Jupiter?

Its system was among the first extrasolar planetary systems ever discovered; Virgo hosts 35 verified exoplanets around 29 stars.

In the Erigone myth, her father Icarius and her dog Maera became which two constellations?

Erigone hanged herself after shepherds murdered Icarius, and Zeus or Dionysus set all three in the sky.