Written by Tadashi
Modified & Updated: 12 Sep 2024
Reviewed by Jessica Corbett
Aquarius has instant recognizability to most people thanks to its status as a zodiac constellation. Its association with astrology also shares instant recognizability. That said, there’s more to Aquarius than just a collection of stars and an omen in fortunetelling. Its stars have stories of their own, which vary around the world and across history. People born under Aquarius have also earned places in history! Read all about them with these 50 Aquarius facts.
- 01Twelve stars traditionally form the constellation Aquarius.
- 02Astronomers have since discovered that Aquarius actually includes a total of 97 stars.
- 03Interestingly, 12 of the constellation’s stars also have planets orbiting them.
- 04Beta Aquarii makes up the brightest star in the constellation, with a magnitude of 2.9.
- 05Astrologers associate Aquarius with people born between January 21 and February 20.
- 01The Greek astronomer Ptolemy first documented the modern constellation of Aquarius in the 2nd century B.C.
- 02Lord Rosse studied and named the Saturn Nebula in Aquarius in the 19th century.
- 03Karl Harding discovered the Helix Nebula also in Aquarius in 1824.
- 04Scientists confirmed the three-dimensional positions of the stars in Aquarius in 1947.
- 05They later discovered an ultra-cool dwarf star in the constellation, TRAPPIST-1, in 2000.
- 06The Chandra X-Ray Observatory detected its first x-rays from Beta Aquarii in Aquarius in the early 2000s.
- 07Scientists first detected planets orbiting stars in Aquarius in 2011.
- 08They also measured TRAPPIST-1 rotational period in 2016.
- 09NASA confirmed in 2017 the discovery of rocky planets around TRAPPIST-1 in Aquarius.
- 10As of 2020, scientists still remain unsure if any of TRAPPIST-1’s planets even have atmospheres.
- 01Aquarius means either “water-carrier” or “cup-carrier” in Latin.
- 02Astrologers associate Aquarius with the classical element of air.
- 03They also associate it with the planets Saturn and Uranus.
- 04Aquarius supposedly weakens the Sun when it passes through Aquarius in the sky.
- 05Similarly, Neptune supposedly weakens Aquarius when it passes through Aquarius in the sky.
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