Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Cancer



Cancer, in latin, means crab (obviously). The above pictue is its astrological symbol but nothing close to what the constellation looks like. The five stars of the constellation are 'Y' shaped and may not look like a crab... but I'll refrain from making yet another comment on the amount of ethanolized grape juice that was very likely consumed during the naming of MANY constellations. The reason, however, for me choosing to write on this object is that it is my mother's astrological sign.

In history, the crab was supposed to distract Hercules from a fight with Hydra (the multi-headed monster). When Hera's attempt was shattered (litterally) once the crab was stepped on by the hero, she put the crustacean in the sky as a reward.

Being a Zodiac constellation, cancer lies upon the ecliptic plane (the plane in which the planets and sun of our galaxy lie upon so precisely that it's as if they were resting on a table, besides a few minor details). The constellation lies near the planetary system 55 Cnc, which is a quintruplet planet system, where there are four gas giants and one terrestrial planet.

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