All language subtitles for The.Universe.S09E05.Predicting.the.Future.WEBRip.x264-ION10

(male narrator)
Astrology,
the celestial movements

of the Sun, Moon, and planets
among the stars,

governing our personality
and destiny.

Astrology is not just based out
of something in the thin air.

It's a celestial fingerprint
for somebody.

(narrator)
For centuries,
millions of people,

from paupers to
powerful world leaders,

have relied on the ancient
system for answers.

Mrs. Reagan had actually hired
an astrologer

to guide the schedule
of the President.

(narrator)
But is there any proof
astrology actually works?

Astrological predictions
are just guesswork.

(narrator)
Astrology has been fighting
a cosmic battle for centuries.

Is it a science
or merely a superstition?

[supernova explosion]

(narrator)
Ancient mysteries shrouded
in the shadows of time.

Now can they finally be solved

by looking to the heavens?

The truth is up there,

hidden among the stars,

in a place we call...

The Universe.

Astrology,
an ancient system

based on the idea
that celestial phenomena

in the universe
have a direct effect

on human lives on earth.

Yet for centuries,
the public has been mixing up

astrology with astronomy.

I am an Aquarius,
so why should I care?

I'm a scientist, right?

However, I do realize,
watching my students,

that astrology is a great way
to break the ice at a party.

The first thing you ask a date
is "what's your sign?"

(narrator)
The scientific community
has questioned the legitimacy

of astrology for centuries.

Yet astrology
is now big business,

with thousands of internet
sites, telephone lines,

and newspaper columns.

Nearly a billion people
from all walks of life

depend on the ancient system
for advice.

Wall Street executives
now even support

the booming business
of financial astrology.

There's a saying
that millionaires

don't use astrology,
billionaires do.

Anybody is gonna want to
use a tool

that's gonna help give them
an edge

and astrology
absolutely does that.

(narrator)
But is there any scientific
basis behind astrology?

And how is it different
from astronomy?

Astronomy has its real origins
in astrology

because the first astronomers
were actually the astrologers.

(narrator)
To understand this,
we have to travel back

to the Babylonians,
who lived in what is now Iraq,

during the second millennium
B.C.

There, a select class
of sky-watchers

viewed the mysterious heavens
as a gigantic projection screen.

They formed stories surrounding
ominous celestial objects

that they believed were mighty
gods controlling life on earth.

In ancient times,
when we didn't understand

what those objects were up
in the sky,

there were some people
who began to keep track of them

and try and relate those,
perhaps, godlike beings

to everyday lives here on earth.

People observing the heavens
immediately noticed

that there was a daily rhythm
to the sky.

That rhythm was that everything
rose in the east

and set in the west,
on a daily cycle.

But over the years,
ancient people noticed

that there were seven objects
in the sky

that had a motion separate

from that daily rising
and setting.

(narrator)
The seven objects
were the Sun, Moon,

and the five planets
visible to the human eye.

Jupiter,

Saturn,

Mars,

Venus,

and Mercury.

The early astrologers created
the seven days of the week

based on these celestial bodies.

And this began
the Babylonian Era,

when they were tracking
and charting cycles of time.

So with this first form
of astrology,

it was more about
fate and destiny,

and looking at the gods
in the sky

to see how
they could best survive

the cycles of time
that they were in.

(narrator)
Astrology quickly spread
throughout Asia and Europe.

By the 4th century B.C.,
Greek astrologers

made a big discovery.

The Sun moved across
a pattern of stars

in a restricted narrow path,

which is now known to scientists
as the ecliptic.

Now you can imagine the Sun
projected against the stars

over the course of the year,
and you can't see those stars

because it's daytime,
but they're there.

And the path that the Sun makes
over the course of the year,

among the stars, that is
the path of the ecliptic.

(narrator)
The ancient astrologers divided
the ecliptic band

into 12 equal parts
based on 12 collections,

or patterns of stars,
known as constellations.

They noticed that some of these
constellations

vaguely resembled animals
and named them accordingly.

There was a pattern of stars
that we call Leo today,

that looked like a lion.

There was one,
which looked like a bull,

which we, today, call Taurus.

Now today we call a place

that has a number
of animals in it a zoo.

And from that same root word,
they got the word "zoodaic"

or zodiac.

We call them constellations,
they call them signs,

through which
the seven gods travel.

(Robert Ohotto voiceover)
If you look
at the constellations,

they don't really look like
a bull or a ram, necessarily.

But they were really
projecting their interior

psychic perspective
out onto these stars

through their myths and stories,
and then trying to make sense

of their lives
and how they lived.

(narrator)
For thousands of years,
people used astrology

to make decisions about when
to hunt, harvest, or wage war.

[war cries]

Many kings, queens,
and emperors

relied on astrologers for
virtually every move they made.

And of course,
the kings and queens of old,

they were very superstitious.

They realized that if they make
the wrong turn,

[imitates slicing noise]

I mean, someone's gonna
take over the throne.

And they tried to
use the Sun and the stars

as a way to predict the future.

(narrator)
But in the 17th Century,
astrology came under scrutiny.

Based on observations
made by others,

Astrologer and physicist,
Johannes Kepler,

proposed the three
laws of planetary motion

to describe how the planets
orbit the Sun.

Kepler's laws helped to usher in
a new science called astronomy.

However, he,
and many other scientists,

continued to practice astrology.

(Michio Kaku voiceover)
Thousands of years ago,
we didn't have NASA.

We didn't have
the National Science Foundation.

Kepler,
Johannes Kepler,

one of the greatest
early astronomers,

made his living by being
an astrologer.

And so all the great astronomers
of old, let's face it,

they made pocket money
by being on the payroll

of a superstitious king or queen
who wanted to know,

"what is your sign?"

(narrator)
But the invention
of the telescope,

in the early 1600s,
overturned the ancient view

of the universe,

and challenged the very basis
of astrology.

Astronomers began to realize
that stars that made up

the 12 constellations
are not twinkling dots

imbedded in a flat background,

but are actually distant suns
at very different distances

from Earth,
and from each other.

[thrilling music]

*

Turn it on.

We're setting up lights
in this field

to form one of the most
recognizable images

in the night sky.

*

Behind me,
is a replica of the Big Dipper.

Like the real
the real Big Dipper,

this appears
to be a two-dimensional,

or flat, pattern of lights
against the sky.

However, these stars
are actually not close

to each other in space.

But are, in fact,
different distances,

both from our earth
and from one another.

If we could see our Big Dipper
from any other point

in the universe,
what we would see is that

the familiar pattern of stars
that we know so well disappears.

And instead, the stars
become randomly oriented

next to one another in the sky.

(narrator)
The Big Dipper
isn't even a constellation.

It's an asterism.

A smaller pattern of stars

within a much bigger
constellation

named Ursa Major.

And Ursa Major isn't even
included in the constellations

that make up
the astrological zodiac.

Astronomers soon realized
there could be

endless numbers
of constellations

depending on your point
of reference in the universe.

Constellations
are completely made up.

There's no reality to them.

Different civilizations
assigned different star patterns

different names.

This is very much like playing
Connect the Dots.

(narrator)
The International Astronomical
Union would eventually agree

on an official
set of constellations,

which are simply artificial aids
to help study the stars

of the universe.

(Andrew Fraknoi voiceover)
We actually divided the sky
into 88 boxes.

And each box contains some
well-known constellation.

This, by the way,
is no different

from what we did
in the United States

when we drew boxes
and made the states.

Kansas is every bit as made-man
as one of the constellations

in the sky.

(narrator)
By the 18th Century,
astrology and astronomy

became completely
separate disciplines.

And scientists stripped
all forms of spiritualism

from the scientific study
of the stars.

Astrology and astronomy
seemed to part ways

during the Enlightenment period.

And it was the same period
that the movement of the planets

was simply just the movement
of the planets,

and not the movement of, also,
psychological influences.

(narrator)
But many remain convinced
that astrology determines

people's personalities.

So what happens when
we challenge two astrologers

to do an astrological reading

on one of the 20th Century's
most famous people

without revealing his name.

Just when and where he was born.

(narrator)
Astrology,
an ancient tradition

that proclaims the stars,
Sun, Moon, and planets

are guardians of our strengths,
ambitions, and destiny.

But after thousands
of years of existence,

astrology suffered a decline,

as the Western world
turned to astronomy

for a scientific study
of the universe.

The two disciplines diverged,

with astronomy becoming strictly
about the observations

of the heavens
and their predictions

made through physical laws

whereas astrology continued
to be the predictions

of the lives of individuals

based on the apparent positions

of astronomical objects
in the sky.

(narrator)
In the 1930s, astrology
experienced a sudden resurgence

with the introduction
of daily horoscope columns

in newspapers.

They provided brief forecasts
of a person's day

based on their Sun sign,

or the position of the Sun
at the moment of their birth

as it passed through the 12
constellations of the zodiac.

The daily horoscopes quickly
gained popularity

and helped to sell newspapers.

But were they peddling
a false bill of goods?

If you think about it,
what that implies

is that 1/12 of the world

will be having the same kind
of day.

If you divide the entire world
into 12 groups

by the date that they happen
to be born,

then 1/12 of the world would be
having the same kind of day.

(Alex Filippenko voiceover)
Now what are the odds that 1/12
of the world's population,

about 500 million people,

are having nearly
the same type of day?

Moreover, all of the predictions
are pretty vague and general.

You can find aspects
that seem to pertain

to the day that you're having.

(narrator)
Even astrologers admit
that daily newspaper horoscopes

are far too simplistic.

When astronomers reduce
astrology

just to a Sun sign understanding
to debunk it,

they're really missing
the complexity

of the actual birth chart
that every individual has.

(narrator)
Astrologers say a true horoscope
is a personal birth,

or natal chart.

A cosmic map that considers
the influence

of, not only the Sun,
but also the Moon,

and the planets
at the exact date, time,

and place of birth
of a specific person.

(Robert Ohotto voiceover)
I do think the horoscope
is absolutely scientific.

It's something that charts

exactly where everything
was in the sky

at that exact moment
for that particular person

when they were born.

And what that sets off
is this clock of destiny

that the horoscope speaks to.

So it's a dynamic,
empirical tool to see

when are you scheduled,
in your life,

to have certain shifts
and transformations.

I mean, these things are about
fate and destiny.

(narrator)
To test the accuracy
of the horoscope,

two well-respected astrologers
are provided the date, time,

and location of birth,
of an anonymous person

from history, in order
to create a birth chart.

So as astrologers,
we used to have to use

lots of calculations and
table to create birth charts.

Now we're able to generate
charts with computers

and programs.

What we need
are three primary things

to create any birth chart.

We need somebody's birthdate,

and this person's birthdate
is May 29, 1917.

And then, we also need exact
birth time.

So 3:00 P.M.

And then this person was born
in Brookline, Massachusetts.

I entered all the information
and it created this chart,

which is blown up
and represented here.

(narrator)
A birth chart positions
the signs in the 12 houses,

or constellations,
and the Sun, Moon, and planets,

at their rightful
celestial longitudes.

The astrologer then analyzes
the aspects, or angles,

the planets make to each other,

in order to get a reading
of the person.

So for this particular person,
we have a rising sign of Libra.

The Sun sign, over here,
is in Gemini.

And the Moon, over here,
in the 11th house, is in Virgo.

I see that the Sun in Gemini
is in the 8th house here.

Gemini is the sign
of being a teacher,

a communicator, orator.

This person comes in with
a real strong desire to serve.

[cheering]

Whoever this person was

probably had an incredible
ability to orate and speak

about whatever he or she
was passionate about.

There is another indicator here.

In a relationship that we call
The Grand Trine

which exists between
the Moon, Mars,

and what we call the North Node.

This suggests that it would be
his or her destiny

to be in the public eye.

This is a person with
potentially

very great vision
and lots of dreams.

(narrator)
The astrologers seem to provide
similar readings

of the mystery person...

We choose to go to the Moon
in this decade

and do the other things.

(narrator)
Who happens to be
the late president

John F. Kennedy.

But were these readings
based on science or sheer luck?

Would most presidents
who were strong orators

have similar charts?

Different astrologers
make different predictions,

and as far as anyone can see,

from a serious study
of the predictions,

they are really not matched
by the observable facts.

There's no statistically
significant study

that shows that astrological
predictions are any better

than just guesswork.

(narrator)
Despite skepticism amongst
scientists,

many people have relied
on astrology

to make crucial decisions
that affected millions if lives.

During World War II,

Adolf Hitler secretly employed
an astrologer,

who was later imprisoned
when predicting

Germany would lose
the North African campaign.

British Prime Minister,
Winston Churchill,

also sought advice
from an astrologer.

As did former Russian president,
Boris Yelstin.

(narrator)
During the 1980s,
the Reagan Administration

allowed the daily affairs
of the White House

to be strictly managed
by an astrologer.

(Andrew Fraknoi voiceover)
Mrs. Reagan
thought that election years

ending with a zero
were bad luck.

President Kennedy had been
elected in 1960.

He had died in Office.

President Roosevelt, who was
elected in 1940, died in Office.

So she was very concerned
that President Reagan

had been elected in 1980.

And in his first term,
there was a very serious

assassination attempt.

(woman)
President Reagan.

[gun shots ringing out]

And what happened is that
the Chief of Staff

of the White House
then had a color code

on each day of the calendar.

And the color code told them
what was okay to do that day,

what was not okay.

And they postponed meeting
so the President wouldn't fly

on the astrologically
unapproved days.

(narrator)
The Reagans were hardly alone.

By the 1980s, an estimated
50 million Americans

claimed to know
their astrological signs,

and followed
their daily horoscope.

[ominous music]

But then, the scientific
community responded

with a bombshell that questioned
astrology very foundation.

Was everyone's zodiac sign
completely wrong?

[explosion]

(narrator)
Astrology seems like a science

with math, complicated diagrams,

and a specialized vocabulary.

But can it actually unlock
the secrets of your destiny?

Scientists claim there's
a celestial phenomenon

that throws the entire
astrological zodiac

into question.

The early astrologers
had observed the Sun

spending about a month in each
of the 12 signs of the zodiac

over the course of one year.

But there's one crucial thing

that the ancient sky-watchers
did not know.

Due to gravitational tugs
by the Moon and the Sun,

the Earth's axis of rotation
slowly wobbles.

This wobble is called
precession.

To illustrate precession,

here, I've got spinning
gyroscope,

which represents
the spinning Earth.

And you can see that its axis
is tilted a little bit,

and gravity is trying
to topple it over.

But instead of falling over,
the gyroscope precesses.

It rotates around an axis that
goes through the pivot point.

In the same way,
Earth's axis of rotation

is describing a conical path,

which leads to precession
of the equinoxes.

(narrator)
It takes 26,000 years
for the precession

of the Earth's axis to complete
one cycle.

As a result,
in the more than 2,000 years

since the Western horoscope
was created,

Earth's slow wobble has caused
the Sun's position to lag behind

by about a month.

This has surprising implications
for astrology.

Because that precession
of the Earth's axis

is roughly every 26,000 years,

that translates into,
every 2,000 years,

those 12 constellations have
lagged by a whole constellation.

So that means
that every 2,000 years,

if your astrology doesn't take
that into account,

you'll be a whole star sign out

in your astrological
predictions.

(narrator)
This would mean everyone
has been reading

the wrong horoscope.

Your astrological sign
would actually be the one

that precedes your birth month.

So for example,
most people born in late March

and early April,
who think they're Pisces,

are actually Aquarius.

At least as far as
the Sun's position is concerned.

How do Western astrologers
get around the dilemma

caused by precession?

The answer is they ignore the
actual position of the stars.

Instead, they divide
the year into four seasons,

and say that the period
they call Aries

starts at the moment of
the spring, or vernal equinox.

The Cancer begins at the moment
of the summer solstice.

Libra start at the autumnal
equinox.

And Capricorn,
at the winter solstice.

In Western astrology,
we're not looking at it

in terms of the background stars
in the constellations.

As far as the signs
in the horoscope goes,

it is based on the movement
of our own planet

and the equinoxes.

(narrator)
But since this new form
of astrology

ignores the actual position
of the constellations,

critics say it undermines
the whole basis

of the ancient system.

I don't see how that can work
because the characteristics

that astrologers assign
to some of the signs

have to do with what
the constellations look like.

So the Pisces sign is associated
with water

because fish swim in water.

So you can't then,
suddenly, decide

that the constellations
and the signs

have nothing to do
with each other.

(narrator)
Modern astrologers insist,
the real life force

of astrology exists within
the planets of our solar system.

(Alanna Kaivalya voiceover)
The word, planet,
for an astrologer

doesn't necessarily mean
the same thing as it does

for an astronomer.

We use the word in the vein
that the Greeks meant it.

In the way that the planet
literally means "wanderer."

So for an astrologer,
anything that moves against

the background stars
is a planet.

So the Sun is not a planet,
technically,

but we call it a planet.

(Robert Ohotto voiceover)
Astrology is not just based out
of something in the thin air.

It's based out of actual
configurations of planets,

their relationships
to each other,

to create a map.

A celestial fingerprint,
or a sense of destiny

for somebody, in terms
of the life they're living

and its timing.

(narrator)
One astrological phrase
that's mentioned

a lot in astrology is,
"Mercury in retrograde."

We've heard people describe it
as a bad omen.

A time when one shouldn't make
big decisions.

Or they blame bad decisions,
or actions,

on the movement of the tiniest
planet in our solar system.

But what does retrograde
really mean?

Retrograde is the apparent
movement of a planet,

seen from Earth, in the opposite
direction of other bodies

in the solar system
when observed

from a particular vantage point.

It's caused by the different
rates of speed

at which a planet travels around
the Sun.

Mercury, being the closest,
according to the laws of Newton,

traveled faster because
it's closer to the Sun.

And, therefore,
as the Earth and Mercury

go around the Sun,
Mercury seems to go backwards.

And so we have
this optical illusion.

Forward can go backwards.

(narrator)
This illusion
is something we can easily see

in our everyday lives.

(Alex Filippenko voiceover)
Suppose you have two cars
going along a highway.

But one car is moving faster
than the other.

As it's passing the slower car,

the slower car appears
to be moving backward.

It's not really moving backward.

But it appears to be moving
backward

from the perspective
of the faster car.

In the same way,
Mercury only appears

to move backward for a while.

But both Earth and Mercury
continue to move forward

in their orbits around the Sun.

[mysterious music]

(narrator)
Mercury has three retrograde
periods per year.

Each lasting about three weeks.

Astrologers claim that certain
people are sensitive

to this celestial phenomenon.

(Alanna Kaivalya voiceover)
Mercury is the planet
that affects communication,

short-range travel.

So when it goes backwards,
it means that those things

are having a more difficult time
moving forward,

So during Mercury in retrograde,
you want to be careful

to start any new contracts.

You want to, probably,
plan some extra time for travel.

This tends to be a time
of plane delays.

And you also want to be
very careful and mindful

of your speech
and communication.

Particularly through technology.

[watch ticking]

Whether Mercury,
or any other planet,

is in retrograde motion,
or the normal prograde motion,

should have no effect,
whatsoever,

on how our day goes,
or our well-being,

or our futures,
or our careers.

(narrator)
Scientists insist that astrology
must be wrong.

But is it possible
that the ancient system

is actually driven
by a known fundamental force

in the universe?

(narrator)
Astrology.

Some believe it's a cosmic
blueprint for life.

But is there any evidence
of a force

that empowers the planets,
Sun, and Moon,

to affect human behavior and
destiny at the moment of birth?

[baby crying]

A lot of astrology talks about
how crucial it is

to know, at time of birth,
what was going on

in the night sky.

That implies that
there's some sort of mechanism

connecting the motion
of celestial objects

to influences on someone
at birth.

[baby crying]

(narrator)
But what kind of mechanism?

According to the law of physics,
there are four fundamental

forces of nature
by which particles,

or planets, can interact
with each other.

They are gravity,
electromagnetism,

the strong nuclear force,
and weak nuclear force.

Scientists argue
that if astrology

has any basis in reality,

it needs to rest on
one of these four basic forces.

But is there any evidence
it does?

Gravity, which is one
of the most fundamental forces

in the universe,
is the pull of all stuff

on all other stuff.

Every piece of matter
in the universe

attracts every other
piece of matter.

And so we, the Earth, are pulled
into orbit around the Sun.

We, in turn, pull the Moon
into orbit around the Earth.

(narrator)
So could gravity be the source
by which celestial objects

affect humans on Earth?

The gravity of an object depends
on two things.

How much mass it has.

And how far away it is

The more massive an object is,
the stronger its gravity.

Yet the closer it is, the more
its gravity affects you.

A way of thinking about that is
to imagine that my voice

is accompanied
by several other voices.

[all speaking at once]

And so what's actually
going to happen

is that it's gonna be very hard
for you to hear me.

I'm gonna have to raise
my voice.

But if they start moving away,

then the effects of their
voices,

even though there are many more
of them than my voice,

will actually get weaker,

and produce a much less
significant effect

than just me standing here
talking to you.

That's very much like a planet
being far away.

Even though it's very massive,
its effects are very weak,

compared to effects locally
that may be much stronger.

(narrator)
Mars is the closest planet
to Earth.

But does it have a measurable
gravitational effect on a human

at the moment of birth?

[baby crying]

Regardless of the position
of Mars in the sky,

its gravitational effect
on the baby

is much less than that of
the doctor delivering the baby.

The doctor has a lot less mass,

but the doctor is much,
much closer than Mars.

And so the gravitational effect
is much greater.

(narrator)
Gravity can't be
the physical mechanism

that governs astrology.

But could astrology be linked
to another force of nature?

Electromagnetism.

It's the force that acts between
electrically charged particles,

producing electricity,
magnetism, and light.

Electromagnetism affects
a lot of what's going on here

on Earth, in terms of
how we broadcast radio signals,

how things are attracted
to each other,

how things bump into each other.

That's all controlled by
the electromagnetic force.

The Moon, planets,
and even the human body,

are composed of electrically
charged particles,

like electrons and protons
that make up atoms.

But positive protons
and negative electrons

cancel each other out
and make the atoms

electrically neutral.

Electromagnetic forces
shouldn't influence people

in their daily lives
or at the moment of birth,

because between electrically
neutral bodies,

there's essentially no
electromagnetic interaction.

Now Earth is neutral,
the planets are neutral,

there should be no
electromagnetic interactions

among them.

(narrator)
What about the two remaining
fundamental forces of nature?

The weak nuclear force
and the strong nuclear force?

The strongest of all
the known forces.

It's the glue that hold together
atomic nuclei,

which all living things
are made of.

The strong and weak
nuclear forces

are influential only over
extremely tiny distances

the sizes of sub-atomic
particles.

There should be no effect
whatsoever,

in terms of the nuclear forces,
between the planets,

at the time of birth,
and the baby.

[baby crying]

(narrator)
Astrology doesn't appear
to be linked

to any detectable force.

But could the ancient system
be governed

by one of the greatest unsolved
mysteries of the universe?

(narrator)
Astrology.

An ancient tradition that links
the patterns of our solar system

with the patterns of our lives.

But what force in the universe
could enable the positions

and motions of the planets
and stars

to affect us here on Earth.

None of the four known forces
of nature

appear to be the smoking gun.

But could modern science
have missed something?

Could astrology be governed by
a mysterious, undetectable force

in our universe?

Science can't even tell us
what consciousness is,

but we know it's there.

So it's very similar
to astrology.

We can interpret them and share
the influences with people,

but we don't exactly know
how it works.

(narrator)
Unlike the known forces
of nature,

astrologers theorize
that this unknown force

that governs astrology
is completely independent

of distance.

Meaning the Sun, Moon, and all
the planets in our solar system

have an equal effect on humans
on Earth.

Given that no experiment
shows the force

that astrology's using,
that the force doesn't follow

any of the known laws
of science,

I think the simplest hypothesis
is that there is no such force.

(narrator)
Scientists assert that astrology
hasn't kept up

with the times.

There are thousands of newly
discovered objects

and phenomenon in the universe
that are pushing the boundaries

of astronomy,
and testing the legitimacy

of astrology.

Sagittarius,
the 15th largest constellation,

is thought to loosely resemble
an archer,

half-man, half-horse,
drawing his bow.

Astrology claims
that people born under this sign

are energetic and enthusiastic.

But scientists discovered
one of the most exotic things

within the constellation.

A black hole.

A super massive object
with such powerful gravity

that nothing can escape from it,
including light.

The cosmic beast swallows
gigantic volumes of gas,

and dust, and anything else
that gets near it.

But does it have any effect
on humans here on Earth?

(Alex Filippenko voiceover)
In the constellation,
Sagittarius,

26,000 light-years away,
is the center of our galaxy.

And we've discovered that
there's a giant black hole,

4 million times as massive
as the Sun,

right there,
in the middle of our galaxy.

That's really neat but it has
nothing to do

with any physical effect
on our lives,

in terms of what careers we
should have,

what people we should date,

what kind of a day
we're gonna have.

[bell tolls]

(narrator)
According to astrology,
the constellation, Cancer,

symbolizes a crab.

Those born under the sign are
said to be maternal homebodies.

But scientists have recently
made a big discovery.

The constellation is home
to solar systems

containing planets resembling
Earth.

Part of the reason the discovery
of extra solar planets

is so exciting,
is that we might be

seeing planets that are
potentially like our own Earth.

Planets that received enough
light from their star,

that they could warm enough
to have liquid water.

And hopefully,
with liquid water,

the chances to be host for life.

But none of these things are
included in astrology at all.

(narrator)
Astrologers acknowledge all
the new scientific discoveries

but claim
that the most important

astrological influences
exist in our own solar system,

not the universe at large.

The reality is that
if we were to incorporate

all of the new discoveries,

we would have an overwhelming
body of things to consider.

So we have to play triage
a little bit

and narrow it down
to the things

that seem to have
the most important

and influential effects
on us.

I think you can lose
the forest for the trees

if you get too crazy,
and go too far out,

and start to look at too many
variable pieces.

What's most important is just
to take in this little space

that we're all involved with,
within the solar system,

and understand your place in it.

(narrator)
Despite the lack of hard
evidence,

many people still swear
by astrology

when making the most important
decisions of their lives.

So what happens when scientists
take the biggest claim

in all of astrology
and put it to the test?

(narrator)
Astrology and astronomy

have been engaged
in a cosmic rift

for centuries.

Astrologers claim their system
is scientific.

Astronomers,
on the other hand,

dismiss it as a superstition.

However, in order
to be fair and accurate,

the scientific community
decided it was time

to test astrology themselves.

When scientists or educators

have asked astrologers
for proof

that their system works,
their response is

they're just too busy
helping people

to devise experiments

and do any kind of
proving of astrology.

Besides which, astrology
doesn't need any proof

'cause they have thousands
of years of satisfied customers.

So if the astrologers didn't
want to advance any proofs

about whether astrology works
or it doesn't,

maybe we could help them out
and do some experiments ourself.

(narrator)
In one study,

scientists tested one of
astrology's biggest claims--

is the ancient system accurate
at predicting

which Zodiac signs
are compatible

or incompatible
when it comes to relationships?

At Michigan State University,

a psychologist collected
the marriage and divorce records

for the state of Michigan

and surveyed the Zodiac signs

among approximately
3,000 couples

who got married
and 500 who got divorced.

(Andrew Fraknoi)
Psychologists tried to see

were more compatible signs
married

and more incompatible signs
divorced?

And the answer was
it was completely random.

The divorces were evenly
spread among the signs.

The marriages were evenly
spread among the signs.

Nothing about getting married
or getting divorced

was visible in their
astrological characteristics.

(Michio Kaku)
These stars you see at night,

trillions upon trillions
of miles away...

and yet some people believe

that the motion
of these gigantic objects

is just there so you can meet
a tall, dark,

handsome stranger tomorrow.

(narrator)
If astrology can't predict
compatibility,

can it provide clues
about a person's

most suitable profession?

In a well-publicized study,

a French psychologist
looked at famous people

to see if occupations lined up

with particular signs
of the Zodiac.

The best-known finding
was called "The Mars Effect."

It alleged that champion
athletes were born...

when the planet Mars,

known astrologically as
the Warrior Planet,

was rising or at its
highest point

when viewed from earth.

(Alex Filippenko)
That study has been
repeated later

with a much more carefully
selected sample,

with much more careful
procedures.

And there, the correlations
with athletes

are no better than
the correlations that you get

among just a random
sample of people

who are not star athletes.

(Andrew Fraknoi)
The idea that somehow
the position of Mars

the day I'm born is important,

that it will tell them
something about my life

or my destiny--
that's nonsense.

There's no evidence for it
either in the statistical tests

or in the examinations
of the mechanism

of how astrology works.

(narrator)
Astrology cannot
pass the test of science,

but that doesn't seem to sway
the true believers.

The National Science Foundation
recently reported

that almost half
of all Americans

think astrology is scientific.

(Alanna Kaivalya)
Astrology isn't science
in terms of hard, fast science.

But it's more like psychology.

Astrology shows us
the habits and patterns

and tendencies
of the human psyche,

and then, of course, the
person's individual free will

has to interact with that
in some way,

and there's no control group
for that particular experiment.

There are things
that we just don't know.

(Clifford Johnson)
In some ways,
a lot of astrology

is a narrative
that people find

gives meaning to things
that sometimes seems random.

As long as the narratives
are not being misused,

not being used
to deceive people,

I think it's perfectly fine.

(narrator)
Astrology and astronomy
share a common origin...

but now they're completely
separate disciplines.

Astronomers admit
humans do have

a deep connection
to the universe...

but not in the way
astrologers think.

We ar directly
connected to the cosmos.

The atoms in our bodies

are made for us by previous
generations of stars,

distributed throughout
the universe

by the explosions of stars.

The warmth of the sun,
the energy of the sun

made life on earth possible.

What I would hope is that people
will look at the universe

as a modern mystery
and try to learn more about

the fascinating world of stars
and planets,

not ancient gods.