This massive dome of speckled darkness has been a giant game of connect the dots for millennia.

千年以來，這片星光斑斕的浩瀚黑色穹頂一直是一場大型點連點的遊戲。

These constellations have represented the gods, the changing of the seasons, and the passage of time.

這些星座代表著神、四季更迭，以及時間的流逝。

They even show up in our horoscopes.

他們甚至出現在我們的星座運勢中。

These of course, are the constellations in the Zodiac, and to be specific, these are 12 constellations that have held immense significance throughout history.

當然，這些都是黃道中的星座，而具體來說，十二星宿在歷史上有著深遠的影響。

And while they don't determine our personalities or fates, they do play an important role in astronomy and understanding how Earth moves through space.

雖然它們並不能決定我們的性格和命運，但它們在天文學和瞭解地球如何在太空運行中扮演著重要的角色。

Before we dive into the role of zodiacs in astronomy, let's first clear up a few things about astrology.

在我們深入瞭解黃道十二宮在天文學中的作用前，讓我們首先澄清一些關於占星學的事。

It's not hard to imagine why ancient people placed a lot of value on certain constellations.

我們都知道古人對某些星座非常重視。

Finding relationships between the movement of the stars and what was happening on Earth, likely helped make their world easier to predict and understand.

找出恆星運動和地球上發生的事件間的關係很可能幫他們更容易預測和理解世界。

For the Babylonians, the shape of a ram in the night sky meant spring was finally around the corner.

對巴比倫人來說，夜空中公羊的形狀意味著春天終於來臨了。

You may be asking yourself, "why are we talking about the zodiacs in a science video?"

你可能會問自己，「為什麼我們要在科學影片中談論十二星宿？」

Well, actually the reason why they stood out among the rest to ancient stargazers is kind of the same reason why they're pretty important for understanding basic astronomy today.

它們之所以能在古代的觀星術中脫穎而出的原因，和它們對於現代理解基本天文學的重要性一樣。

Here's how it works.

下面是它的工作原理。

If you could see all of the stars during the day, over the course of a year, you'd be able to see the sun, slowly moving along a path from one constellation to the next.

如果在一天中，你能看到所有的星星，那麼在一年裡，你便能看到太陽沿著一條路徑慢慢地移動，從一個星座到另一個星座。

That imaginary path is called the ecliptic.

而那條想象中的路徑叫做黃道。

And it's arguably one of the most important coordinate systems in astronomy.

它可以說是天文學中最重要的座標系之一。

What makes the ecliptic line so useful is how it shows the plane of Earth's orbit around the sun and our place in the solar system.

黃道線之所以如此有用，是因為它顯示了地球繞行太陽的軌道的平面，以及我們在太陽系中的位置。

Because all of the major celestial bodies in the solar system orbit the sun in a similar way.

因為太陽系中的所有主要天體系統以類似的方式繞太陽運行。

They're on or near the same flat plane of the ecliptic.

它們在黃道的同一個平面上或附近。

That's all of the planets, and even the moon, while some differ by a few degrees from the line.

也就是所有的行星，甚至是月亮，雖然有的與這條線相差幾度。

They're all essentially there.

但他們基本上都在那。

Another reason Zodiac constellations became so famous throughout history, is that we always see the moon, planets and eclipses near them.

黃道星座之所以在歷史上如此出名，還有一個原因就是我們總是在看月球、行星，和它們附近的日食。

Eclipse, ecliptic.

日食，黃道。

You get the idea.

你懂的

With all this action in one area of the night sky, it's easy to understand why ancient interpreters placed immense value on these constellations, but it's also really important for modern space work.

單在夜空的一個區域裡就有這麼多的運動，就不難理解為什麼古代解釋者們會這麼重視這些星座，但它在現代也對於了解太空運作極具重要性。

And it also turned out to be a good place to hunt for exoplanets during NASA's K2 mission.

而在NASA的K2項目中，這裡也是一個尋找系外行星的好地方。

The Kepler mission was a space telescope that search for exoplanets by measuring brightness dips in nearby stars.

開普勒任務是藉由一個太空望遠鏡，通過測量附近恆星的亮度下降來尋找系外行星。

And although the Kepler mission wasn't originally designed to search the ecliptic, that part of the sky ended up being a good place to find exoplanets.

雖然開普勒任務最初並不是為了搜索黃道，但那片天空最終成為尋找系外行星的好地方。

The whole purpose of Kepler was to find the planets around other stars.

開普勒的主要目的是尋找其他恆星周圍的行星。

So originally we pointed Kepler near the constellation of Cygnus, and we picked that part of the sky because we didn't know how common planets were.

所以最初我們將開普勒指向天鵝座附近，選擇了那部分的天空，因為我們不知道行星有多常見。

But about four years into the mission, two wheels on the spacecraft failed, meaning that it could no longer hold steady enough to observe near Cygnus.

但在任務進行了大約四年之後，飛船上的兩個輪子出現了故障，這就意味著它再也不能在天鵝座附近穩定觀察。

So they got creative and used the sun to keep the telescope pointed in the same place.

所以他們發揮了創造力，利用太陽來讓望遠鏡保持指向同一個地方。

Because the Kepler Space Telescope had symmetrical solar panels, the solar pressure was enough to keep it oriented in one direction.

因為開普勒太空望遠鏡有對稱的太陽板，所以太陽壓力足以使它面向單一方向。

And with the sun pushing it slightly, it meant that K2 was now pointed directly at the ecliptic line.

而太陽稍稍讓它傾斜一下，意味著K2現在的方向是直接指在黃道線。

But that was still great, we still found, oh, over 400 planets, looking at all these different parts of the sky every eighty days.

但這仍然很偉大，我們仍然發現了，噢，有超過400顆的行星，我們每80天就看看天空的不同區域。

Some of us who work on K2. We think of the K2 mission as what may be one of NASA's best hacks.

我們一些在K2工作的人認為K2任務可能是美國宇航局最好的偷吃步。

While astronomers continue to use the ecliptic line to learn about our solar system and exoplanets in the galaxy, there's so much you can see right from where you are.

雖然天文學家繼續利用黃道線來了解我們的太陽系和銀河系外行星，但是你可以從你所在的地方看到很多東西。

Depending on where you live, you should be able to see at least one Zodiac constellation every single night.

根據你所居住的地方，你應該可以在每個晚上至少看到一個黃道星座。

And my favorite part is that it's easy to find the planets, once you know where to look.

我最喜歡的是，只要你知道要在哪裡找，就很容易找到行星。

They're always going to be along the ecliptic.

而他們都會沿著黃道。

It's pretty cool to be able to see where you are, relative to the rest of the solar system, right from your backyard.

在你家後院就能看到自己相對於太陽系其他地方的位置，真是太酷了。

And one more thing that astrology doesn't get quite right when it comes to the Zodiac constellations.

占星學還有一件事在十二星宿方面做得不太對。

Astrology assumes that the zodiac signs are split evenly into the 12 slices of the year.

占星學認為黃道十二星座是把一平均分成12份。

But in fact, the sun spends wildly different lengths of time in each Zodiac constellation.

但事實上，太陽在每個星座的時間長短是很不一樣的。

Not to mention Ohiuchus, a 13th constellation, known as the serpent bearer, in which the sun spends 18 days.

更不用說被稱為蛇夫的第13星座阿斯克勒庇俄斯了，太陽會在此待18天。

My name is Sarafina Nance, and this is Seeker Constellations.

我叫Sarafina Nance，這裡是 Seeker Constellations。

If there's an astronomy topic or a favorite constellation you want us to cover, let us know in the comments.

如果你希望我們能加入你喜歡的天文主題或星座的話， 請在留言處中告訴我們。

Thanks for watching.

謝謝你的觀看。