Glossary term: Virgo
Description: Virgo is one of the constellations in the Zodiac, i.e. the stars that make up this constellation are in the part of the sky that intersects with the ecliptic (the plane defined by the Earth's orbit around the Sun). Hence, from Earth, we can regularly find the Sun, and also the other planets of the Solar System, in the constellation Virgo. In the case of the Sun this occurs from late September to late October (at that time, of course, we cannot see the constellation's stars). Virgo is one of the 88 modern constellations defined by the International Astronomical Union, but goes back much further – it was already one of the 48 constellations named by the 2nd century astronomer Claudius Ptolemy. Virgo is notable as the location of the Virgo Cluster, a nearby cluster of over a thousand galaxies which forms the core of a supercluster of which our Galaxy is a member
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Term and definition status: This term and its definition have been approved by a research astronomer and a teacher
The OAE Multilingual Glossary is a project of the IAU Office of Astronomy for Education (OAE) in collaboration with the IAU Office of Astronomy Outreach (OAO). The terms and definitions were chosen, written and reviewed by a collective effort from the OAE, the OAE Centers and Nodes, the OAE National Astronomy Education Coordinators (NAECs) and other volunteers. You can find a full list of credits here. All glossary terms and their definitions are released under a Creative Commons CC BY-4.0 license and should be credited to "IAU OAE".
