Cancer ( constellation ) - wikipedia Cancer ( constellation ) Cancer Constellation List of stars in Cancer Abbreviation Cnc Genitive Cancri Pronunciation / ˈkænsər /, genitive / ˈkæŋkraɪ / Symbolism the Crab Right ascension 07 55 19.7973 -- 09 22 35.0364 Declination 33.1415138 ° -- 6.4700689 ° Area 506 sq. deg. ( 31st ) Main stars 5 Bayer / Flamsteed stars 76 Stars with planets 10 Stars brighter than 3.00 0 Stars within 10.00 pc ( 32.62 ly ) Brightest star β Cnc ( Altarf ) ( 3.53 ) Messier objects Meteor showers Delta Cancrids Bordering constellations Lynx Gemini Canis Minor Hydra Leo Leo Minor ( corner ) Visible at latitudes between + 90 ° and − 60 °. Best visible at 21 : 00 ( 9 p.m. ) during the month of March. For other uses, see Cancer ( disambiguation ). Cancer is one of the twelve constellations of the zodiac. Its name is Latin for crab and it is commonly represented as one. Its astrological symbol is ( Unicode ♋ ). Cancer is a medium - size constellation with an area of 506 square degrees and its stars are rather faint, its brightest star Beta Cancri having an apparent magnitude of 3.5. It contains two stars with known planets, including 55 Cancri, which has five : one super-earth and four gas giants, one of which is in the habitable zone and as such has expected temperatures similar to Earth. Located at the center of the constellation is Praesepe ( Messier 44 ), one of the closest open clusters to Earth and a popular target for amateur astronomers. Contents 1 Characteristics 2 Features 2.1 Stars 2.2 Deep - sky objects 3 History 4 Illustrations 5 Names 6 Mythology 6.1 Astrology 7 Equivalents 8 See also 9 Notes 10 References 11 External links Characteristics Cancer is a medium - sized constellation that is bordered by Gemini to the west, Lynx to the north, Leo Minor to the northeast, Leo to the east, Hydra to the south, and Canis Minor to the southwest. The three - letter abbreviation for the constellation, as adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, is ' Cnc '. The official constellation boundaries, as set by Eugène Delporte in 1930, are defined by a polygon of 10 sides ( illustrated in infobox ). In the equatorial coordinate system, the right ascension coordinates of these borders lie between 07 55 19.7973 and 09 22 35.0364, while the declination coordinates are between 33.1415138 ° and 6.4700689 °. Covering 506 square degrees or 0.921 % of the sky, it ranks 31st of the 88 constellations in size. It can be seen at latitudes between + 90 ° and - 60 ° and is best visible at 9 p.m. during the month of March. Cancer Borders the bright constellations of Leo and Gemini and Canis Minor, Under city skies, Cancer is invisible to the naked eye. Features Stars See also : List of stars in Cancer Cancer is the second dimmest of the zodiacal constellations, having only two stars above the fourth magnitude. The German cartographer Johann Bayer used the Greek letters Alpha through Omega to label the most prominent stars in the constellation, followed by the letter A, then lowercase b, c and d. Within the constellation 's borders, there are 104 stars brighter than or equal to apparent magnitude 6.5. The constellation Cancer as it can be seen by the naked eye. Also known as Altarf or Tarf, Beta Cancri is the brightest star in Cancer at apparent magnitude 3.5. Located 290 ± 30 light - years from Earth, it is a binary star system, its main component an orange giant of spectral type K4III that is varies slightly from a baseline magnitude of 3.53 -- dipping by 0.005 magnitude over a period of 6 days. An aging star, it has expanded to around 50 times the Sun 's diameter and shines with 660 times its luminosity. It has a faint magnitude 14 red dwarf companion located 29 arcseconds away that takes 76,000 years to complete an orbit. Altarf represents a part of Cancer 's body. At magnitude 3.9 is Delta Cancri, also known as Asellus Australis. Located 131 ± 1 light - years from Earth, it is an orange - hued giant star that has swollen and cooled off the main sequence to become an orange giant with a radius 11 times and luminosity 53 times that of the Sun. Its common name means `` southern donkey ''. The star also holds a record for the longest name, `` Arkushanangarushashutu, '' derived from ancient Babylonian language, which translates to `` the southeast star in the Crab. '' Delta Cancri also makes it easy to find X Cancri, the reddest star in the sky. Known as Asellus Borealis `` northern donkey '', Gamma Cancri is a white - hued A-type subgiant of spectral type A1IV and magnitude 4.67, that is 35 times as luminous as of the Sun. It is located 181 ± 2 light - years from Earth. Iota Cancri is a wide double star. The primary is a yellow - hued G - type bright giant star of magnitude 4.0, located 330 ± 20 light - years from Earth. It spent much of its stellar life as a B - type main sequence star before expanding and cooling to its current state as it spent its core hydrogen. The secondary is a white main sequence star of spectral type A3V and magnitude 6.57. Despite having different distances when measured by the HIPPARCOS satellite, the two stars share a common proper motion and appear to be a natural binary system. Located 181 ± 2 light - years from Earth, Alpha Cancri ( Acubens ) is a multiple star with a primary component an apparent white main sequence star of spectral type A5 and magnitude 4.26. The secondary is of magnitude 12.0 and is visible in small amateur telescopes. Its common name means `` the claw ''. The primary is actually two very similar white main sequence stars that are 5.3 AU distant from each other and the secondary is two small main sequence stars, most likely red dwarfs, that are 600 AU from the main pair. Hence the system is a quadruple one. Zeta Cancri or Tegmine ( `` the shell '' ) is a multiple star system that contains at least four stars located 82 light - years from Earth. The two brightest components are a binary star with an orbital period of 1100 years ; the brighter component is a yellow - hued binary pair and the dimmer component is a yellow - hued star of magnitude 6.2. The brighter component is itself a binary star with a period of 59.6 years ; its primary is of magnitude 5.6 and its secondary is of magnitude 6.0. This pair is at its greatest separation around 2019. Ten star systems have been found to have planets. Rho - 1 Cancri or 55 Cancri ( or Copernicus ) is a binary star approximately 40.9 light - years distant from Earth. 55 Cancri consists of a yellow dwarf and a smaller red dwarf, with five planets orbiting the primary star ; one low - mass planet that may be either a hot, water - rich world or a carbon planet and four gas giants. 55 Cancri A, classified as a rare `` super metal - rich '' star, is one of the top 100 target stars for NASA 's Terrestrial Planet Finder mission, ranked 63rd on the list. The red dwarf 55 Cancri B, a suspected binary, appears to be gravitationally bound to the primary star, as the two share common proper motion. YBP 1194 is a sunlike star in the open cluster M67 that has been found to have three planets. Deep - sky objects Cancer is best known among stargazers as the home of Praesepe ( Messier 44 ), an open cluster also called the Beehive Cluster, located right in the centre of the constellation. Located about 590 light - years from Earth, it is one of the nearest open clusters to our Solar System. M 44 contains about 50 stars, the brightest of which are of the sixth magnitude. Epsilon Cancri is the brightest member at magnitude 6.3. Praesepe is also one of the larger open clusters visible ; it has an area of 1.5 square degrees, or three times the size of the full Moon. It is most easily observed when Cancer is high in the sky. North of the Equator, this period stretches from February to May. Ptolemy described the Beehive Cluster as `` the nebulous mass in the breast of Cancer. '' It was one of the first objects Galileo observed with his telescope in 1609, spotting 40 stars in the cluster. Today, there are about 1010 high - probability members, most of them ( 68 percent ) red dwarfs. The Greeks and Romans identified the nebulous object as a manger from which two donkeys, represented by the neighbouring stars ( 1213 ) Asellus Borealis and ( 1210 ) Asellus Australis, were eating. The stars represent the donkeys that the god Dionysus and his tutor Silenus rode in the war against the Titans. The ancient Chinese interpreted the object as a ghost or demon riding in a carriage, calling it a `` cloud of pollen blown from under willow catkins. '' The smaller, denser open cluster Messier 67 can also be found in Cancer, 2600 light - years from Earth. It has an area of approximately 0.5 square degrees, the size of the full Moon. It contains approximately 200 stars, the brightest of which are of the tenth magnitude. QSO J0842 + 1835 is a quasar used to measure the speed of gravity in VLBI experiment conducted by Edward Fomalont and Sergei Kopeikin in September 2002. OJ 287 is a BL Lacertae object located 3.5 billion light years away that has produced quasi-periodic optical outbursts going back approximately 120 years, as first apparent on photographic plates from 1891. It was first detected at radio wavelengths during the course of the Ohio Sky Survey. Its central supermassive black hole is among the largest known, with a mass of 18 billion solar masses, more than six times the value calculated for the previous largest object. History Cancer is said to have been the place for the Akkadian Sun of the South, perhaps from its position at the summer solstice in very remote antiquity. But afterwards it was associated with the fourth month Duzu ( June -- July in the modern western calendar ), and was known as the Northern Gate of Sun. Showing but few stars, and its brightest stars being of only 4th magnitude, Cancer was often considered the `` Dark Sign '', quaintly described as black and without eyes. Dante, alluding to this faintness and position of heavens, wrote in Paradiso : `` Then a light among them brightened, So that, if Cancer one such crystal had, Winter would have a month of one sole day. '' Cancer was the location of the Sun 's most northerly position in the sky ( the summer solstice ) in ancient times, though this position now occurs in Taurus due to the precession of the equinoxes, around June 21. This is also the time that the Sun is directly overhead at 23.5 ° N, a parallel now known as the Tropic of Cancer. In Greek mythology, Cancer is identified with the crab that appeared while Hercules was fighting the many - headed Hydra. The crab bit Hercules on the foot, Hercules crushed it and then the goddess Hera, a sworn enemy of Hercules, placed the crab among the stars. Illustrations Cancer as depicted in Urania 's Mirror, a set of constellation cards published in London c. 1825. The modern symbol for Cancer represents the pincers of a crab, but Cancer has been represented as many types of creatures, usually those living in the water, and always those with an exoskeleton. In the Egyptian records of about 2000 BC it was described as Scarabaeus ( Scarab ), the sacred emblem of immortality. In Babylonia the constellation was known as MUL. AL. LUL, a name which can refer to both a crab and a snapping turtle. On boundary stones, the image of a turtle or tortoise appears quite regularly and it is believed that this represents Cancer since a conventional crab has not so far been discovered on any of these monuments. There also appears to be a strong connection between the Babylonian constellation and ideas of death and a passage to the underworld, which may be the origin of these ideas in later Greek myths associated with Hercules and the Hydra. In the 12th century, an illustrated astronomical manuscript shows it as a water beetle. Albumasar writes of this sign in Flowers of Abu Ma'shar. A 1488 Latin translation depicts cancer as a large crayfish, which also is the constellation 's name in most Germanic languages. Jakob Bartsch and Stanislaus Lubienitzki, in the 17th century, described it as a lobster. Names Richard Allen, in Star - names and Their Meanings, lists names for the constellation as follows : In Ancient Greece, Aratus called the crab Καρκινος ( Karkinos ), which was followed by Hipparchus and Ptolemy. The Alfonsine tables called it Carcinus, a Latinized form of the Greek word. Eratosthenes extended this as Καρκινος, Ονοι, και Φατνη ( Karkinos, Onoi, kai Fatne ) : the Crab, Asses, and Crib. In Ancient Rome, Manilius and Ovid called the constellation Litoreus ( shore - inhabiting ). Astacus and Cammarus appear in various classic writers, while it is called Nepa in Cicero 's De Finibus and the works of Columella, Plautus, and Varro ; all of these words signify crab, lobster, or scorpion. Athanasius Kircher said that in Coptic Egypt it was Κλαρια ( Klaria ), the Bestia seu Statio Typhonis ( the Power of Darkness ). Jérôme Lalande identified this with Anubis, one of the Egyptian divinities commonly associated with Sirius. The Indian language Sanskrit shares a common ancestor with Greek, and the Sanskrit name of Cancer is Karka and Karkata. In Telugu it is `` Karkatakam '', in Kannada `` Karkataka '' or `` Kataka '', in Tamil Karkatan, and in Sinhalese Kagthaca. The later Hindus knew it as Kulira, from the Greek Κολουρος ( Kolouros ), the term originated by Proclus. The Filipino language Tagalog they commonly called this as Alimasag and Alimango. Mythology Hercules attacked by Karkinos ( bottom ) and the Lernaean Hydra, under the aid of Athena. White - ground Ancient Greek Attic lekythos, ca. 500 -- 475 BC. Louvre Museum, Paris. The creation of the constellation is explained in Greek mythology by the short - lived association of the crab Karkinos with one of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, in which Hercules battled the multi-headed Lernaean Hydra. Hera had sent Karkinos to distract Hercules and put him at a disadvantage during the battle, but Hercules quickly dispatched the crab by kicking it with such force that it was propelled into the sky. Other accounts had Karkinos grabbing onto Hercules ' toe with its claws, but Hercules simply crushed the crab under his foot. Hera, grateful for Karkinos 's effort, gave it a place in the sky. Some scholars have suggested that Karkinos was a late addition to the myth of Hercules in order to make the Twelve Labors correspond to the twelve signs of the Zodiac. Astrology Main article : Cancer ( astrology ) As of 2002, the Sun appears in the constellation Cancer from July 20 to August 9. In tropical astrology, the Sun is considered to be in the sign Cancer from June 21 to July 22, and in sidereal astrology, from July 16 to August 16. This constellation can be found during winter or autumn. Equivalents In Chinese astronomy, the stars of Cancer lie within the Vermilion Bird of the South ( 南方 朱雀, Nán Fāng Zhū Què ). See also Cancer ( Chinese astronomy ) Notes Jump up ^ Objects of magnitude 6.5 are among the faintest visible to the unaided eye in suburban - rural transition night skies. References ^ Jump up to : Ridpath & Tirion 2017, pp. 96 -- 97 ^ Jump up to : `` Cancer, constellation boundary ''. The Constellations. International Astronomical Union. Retrieved 14 February 2014. Jump up ^ Russell, Henry Norris ( 1922 ). `` The New International Symbols for the Constellations ''. Popular Astronomy. 30 : 469 -- 71. Bibcode : 1922PA... 30... 469R. Jump up ^ Wagman 2003, p. 60. Jump up ^ Bortle, John E. ( February 2001 ). `` The Bortle Dark - Sky Scale ''. Sky & Telescope. Retrieved 28 August 2017. Jump up ^ Ridpath, Ian. `` Constellations : Andromeda -- Indus ''. Star Tales. self - published. Retrieved 26 August 2015. ^ Jump up to : `` Naming Stars ''. IAU.org. Retrieved 30 July 2018. ^ Jump up to : Kaler, James B. `` Al Tarf ( Beta Cancri ) ''. Stars. University of Illinois. Retrieved 20 March 2014. ^ Jump up to : van Leeuwen, F. ( 2007 ). `` Validation of the New Hipparcos Reduction ''. Astronomy and Astrophysics. 474 ( 2 ) : 653 -- 64. arXiv : 0708.1752. Bibcode : 2007A&A... 474... 653V. doi : 10.1051 / 0004 - 6361 : 20078357. Jump up ^ Watson, Christopher ( 3 May 2013 ). `` NSV 3973 ''. AAVSO Website. American Association of Variable Star Observers. Retrieved 20 March 2014. ^ Jump up to : Kaler, James B. ( 14 May 2010 ). `` Asellus Australis ( Delta Cancri ) ''. Stars. University of Illinois. Retrieved 7 April 2015. Jump up ^ `` gam Cnc ''. SIMBAD. Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg. Retrieved 8 April 2015. Jump up ^ McDonald, I. ; Zijlstra, A.A. ; Boyer, M.L. ( 2012 ). `` Fundamental Parameters and Infrared Excesses of Hipparcos Stars ''. Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. 427 ( 1 ) : 343 -- 57. arXiv : 1208.2037. Bibcode : 2012MNRAS. 427... 343M. doi : 10.1111 / j. 1365 - 2966.2012. 21873. x. ^ Jump up to : Kaler, James B. `` Iota Cancri ''. Stars. University of Illinois. Retrieved 29 May 2015. Jump up ^ Kaler, James B. `` Acubens ''. Stars. University of Illinois. Retrieved 29 May 2015. Jump up ^ Valtonen, M.J. ; Lehto, H.J. ; Nilsson, K. ; Heidt, J. ; Takalo, L.O. ; Sillanpää, A. ; Villforth, C. ; Kidger, M. ; Poyner, G. ; Pursimo, T. ; Zola, S. ; Wu, J. - H. ; Zhou, X. ; Sadakane, K. ; Drozdz, M. ; Koziel, D. ; Marchev, D. ; Ogloza, W. ; Porowski, C. ; Siwak, M. ; Stachowski, G. ; Winiarski, M. ; Hentunen, V. - P. ; Nissinen, M. ; Liakos, A. ; Dogru, S. ( 2008 ). `` A massive binary black - hole system in OJ 287 and a test of general relativity '' ( PDF ). Nature. 452 ( 7189 ) : 851 -- 853. arXiv : 0809.1280. Bibcode : 2008Natur. 452... 851V. doi : 10.1038 / nature06896. PMID 18421348. Jump up ^ Shiga, David ( 10 January 2008 ). `` Biggest black hole in the cosmos discovered ''. NewScientist.com news service. Jump up ^ White 2008, pp. 79 -- 82 Jump up ^ `` Flowers of Abu Ma'shar ''. World Digital Library. 1488. Retrieved 2013 - 07 - 15. ^ Jump up to : Allen 1899, pp. 107 -- 108 Jump up ^ `` Cancer ''. Dibonsmith.com. Retrieved 2012 - 05 - 16. Jump up ^ ( in Chinese ) AEEA ( Activities of Exhibition and Education in Astronomy ) 天文 教育 資訊 網 2006 年 5 月 27 日 Cited texts Allen, Richard Hinckley ( 1899 ), `` Cancer, the Crab '', Star - names and Their Meanings, G.E. Stechert, pp. 107 -- 114 Reprinted as Allen, Richard Hinckley ( 1963 ). Star Names : Their Lore and Meaning. Dover Publications. ISBN 0 - 486 - 21079 - 0. Ridpath, Ian ( 2017 ), Stars and Planets Guide, Wil Tirion ( 5th ed. ), Princeton University Press, ISBN 978 - 0 - 69 - 117788 - 5 Liungman, Carl G., Dictionary of Symbols, W.W. Norton & Company, ISBN 0 - 393 - 31236 - 4 White, Gavin ( 2008 ), Babylonian Star - lore, Solaria Pubs Wagman, Morton ( 2003 ). Lost Stars : Lost, Missing and Troublesome Stars from the Catalogues of Johannes Bayer, Nicholas Louis de Lacaille, John Flamsteed, and Sundry Others. Blacksburg, Virginia : The McDonald & Woodward Publishing Company. ISBN 978 - 0 - 939923 - 78 - 6. External links Wikimedia Commons has media related to : Cancer ( constellation ) ( category ) The Deep Photographic Guide to the Constellations : Cancer Star Tales -- Cancer Warburg Institute Iconographic Database ( over 300 medieval and early modern images of Cancer ) Cancer constellation Stars ( list ) Bayer α ( Acubens ) β ( Tarf ) γ ( Asellus Borealis ) δ ( Asellus Australis ) ε ( Meleph ) ζ ( Tegmine ) η θ ι κ λ ( Piautos ) μ μ ν ξ ( Nahn ) ο ο π π ρ ( Copernicus ) ρ σ σ σ τ υ υ φ φ χ ψ ψ ω Flamsteed 4 ( ω ) 5 7 8 11 12 15 20 ( d ) 21 24 25 ( d ) 27 28 29 34 35 36 ( c ) 37 38 39 40 42 44 45 ( A ) 46 49 ( b ) 50 ( A ) 52 53 54 57 60 61 66 67 68 70 71 75 78 79 80 83 1 LMi 2 LMi 3 LMi 4 LMi Variable U V X RS RU RX RZ SS SY TT TU TW TX UU VZ WY YZ AC AD AH AK AR AT AZ BN BQ BR BS BU BW BX CC CU CY DW DX EG EP ES EV EW EX FZ GY HU HV HR 3104 3115 3125 3127 3158 3164 3198 3201 3222 3228 3231 3252 3264 3306 3376 3380 3394 3395 3424 3428 3504 3558 3567 3599 3606 3617 3620 3635 3657 3689 3707 HD 67542 69629 72115 73534 74721 76908 79498 Other ADS 7284 G 9 - 38 HAT - P - 31 LHS 2090 PSR B0823 + 26 RX J0806. 3 + 1527 YBP 1194 Star clusters Open Beehive Cluster Messier 67 NGC 2664 NGC 2678 Nebulae Planetary Abell 30 Galaxies NGC 2503 2507 2512 2513 2514 2522 2526 2530 2535 2536 2540 2545 2553 2554 2556 2557 2558 2560 2562 2563 2565 2569 2570 2572 2575 2576 2577 2581 2582 2592 2593 2594 2595 2596 2598 2599 2604 2604B 2607 2608 2611 2619 2620 2621 2622 2623 2624 2625 2628 2647 2648 2651 2657 2661 2667 2672 2673 2677 2679 2680 2711 2720 2725 2728 2730 2731 2734 2735 2735A 2737 2738 2741 2743 2744 2744A 2745 2747 2749 2750 2751 2752 2753 2761 2764 2766 2773 2774 2775 2777 2783 2783B 2786 2789 2790 2791 2794 2795 2796 2797 2801 2802 2803 2804 2807 2807A 2809 2812 2813 2819 2824 2843 Other B2 0827 + 243 3C 190 3C 191 3C 192 3C 207 3C 212 3C 215 4C + 29.30 Mrk 704 OI 090.4 OJ 287 QSO B0820 + 225 QSO B0839 + 187 Galaxy clusters Abell 671 Cancer Cluster Musket Ball Cluster Other GRB 021211 SN 1999aa SN 2002lt The 88 modern constellations Andromeda Antlia Apus Aquarius Aquila Ara Aries Auriga Boötes Caelum Camelopardalis Cancer Canes Venatici Canis Major Canis Minor Capricornus Carina Cassiopeia Centaurus Cepheus Cetus Chamaeleon Circinus Columba Coma Berenices Corona Australis Corona Borealis Corvus Crater Crux Cygnus Delphinus Dorado Draco Equuleus Eridanus Fornax Gemini Grus Hercules Horologium Hydra Hydrus Indus Lacerta Leo Leo Minor Lepus Libra Lupus Lynx Lyra Mensa Microscopium Monoceros Musca Norma Octans Ophiuchus Orion Pavo Pegasus Perseus Phoenix Pictor Pisces Piscis Austrinus Puppis Pyxis Reticulum Sagitta Sagittarius Scorpius Sculptor Scutum Serpens Sextans Taurus Telescopium Triangulum Triangulum Australe Tucana Ursa Major Ursa Minor Vela Virgo Volans Vulpecula Lists of constellations Constellation history The 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy after 150 AD Andromeda Aquarius Aquila Ara Argo Navis Aries Auriga Boötes Cancer Canis Major Canis Minor Capricornus Cassiopeia Centaurus Cepheus Cetus Corona Australis Corona Borealis Corvus Crater Cygnus Delphinus Draco Equuleus Eridanus Gemini Hercules Hydra Leo Lepus Libra Lupus Lyra Ophiuchus Orion Pegasus Perseus Pisces Piscis Austrinus Sagitta Sagittarius Scorpius Serpens Taurus Triangulum Ursa Major Ursa Minor Virgo The 41 additional constellations added in the 16th and 17th centuries Vespucci or Corsalius early 16c : Crux Triangulum Australe Vopel 1536 : Coma Berenices Keyser & de Houtman 1596 : Apus Chamaeleon Dorado Grus Hydrus Indus Musca Pavo Phoenix Tucana Volans Plancius 1613 : Camelopardalis Columba Monoceros Habrecht 1621 : Reticulum Hevelius 1683 : Canes Venatici Lacerta Leo Minor Lynx Scutum Sextans Vulpecula de Lacaille 1763 : Antlia Caelum Carina Circinus Fornax Horologium Mensa Microscopium Norma Octans Pictor Puppis Pyxis Sculptor Telescopium Vela Obsolete constellations ( including Ptolemy 's Argo Navis ) Anser Antinous Apes Argo Navis Asterion Cancer Minor Cerberus Chara Custos Messium Felis Frederici Honores / Gloria Frederici Gallus Globus Aerostaticus Jordanus Lilium Lochium Funis Machina Electrica Malus Mons Maenalus Musca Borealis Noctua Officina Typographica Polophylax Psalterium Georgianum / Harpa Georgii Quadrans Muralis Ramus Pomifer Robur Carolinum Sceptrum Brandenburgicum Sceptrum et Manus Iustitiae Solarium Rangifer / Tarandus Taurus Poniatovii Telescopium Herschelii Testudo Tigris Triangulum Minus Turdus Solitarius Vespa Vultur cadens Vultur volans obsolete constellation names Apis Phoenicopterus Serpentarius Xiphias The Zodiac Astrological signs Aries Taurus Gemini Cancer Leo Virgo Libra Scorpio Sagittarius Capricorn Aquarius Pisces Western astrology House Triplicity Mode Cardinal Fixed Mutable Binary Positive ( astrology ) Negative ( astrology ) Related Ophiuchus Astronomy Axial precession Constellations of the Ecliptic Ecliptic coordinate system Planets in astrology Zodiacal light Coordinates : 09 00 00, + 20 ° 00 ′ 00 '' Retrieved from `` https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cancer_(constellation)&oldid=852811165 '' Categories : Cancer ( constellation ) Western astrology Northern constellations Constellations listed by Ptolemy Hidden categories : Articles with Chinese - language external links All articles with unsourced statements Articles with unsourced statements from December 2008 Articles containing potentially dated statements from 2002 All articles containing potentially dated statements Talk Contents About Wikipedia Wikimedia Commons Afrikaans Ænglisc Aragonés Asturianu Azərbaycanca বাংলা Bân - lâm - gú Башҡортса Беларуская Беларуская ( тарашкевіца ) ‎ Български བོད ་ ཡིག Bosanski Brezhoneg Català Čeština Corsu Cymraeg Dansk Deutsch Eesti Ελληνικά Español Esperanto Euskara فارسی Français Gaeilge Galego 客家 語 / Hak - kâ - ngî 한국어 Հայերեն हिन्दी Hrvatski Bahasa Indonesia Interlingua Ирон Íslenska Italiano עברית Basa Jawa ಕನ್ನಡ ქართული Қазақша Kiswahili Latina Latviešu Lëtzebuergesch Lietuvių Limburgs Magyar Македонски മലയാളം Bahasa Melayu Mìng - dĕ̤ng - ngṳ̄ Монгол မြန်မာဘာသာ Nederlands 日本 語 Norsk Norsk nynorsk Occitan Олык марий ਪੰਜਾਬੀ Picard Polski Português Română Runa Simi Русский Саха тыла Scots Sicilianu Simple English Slovenčina Slovenščina Српски / srpski Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски Suomi Svenska Татарча / tatarça ไทย Тоҷикӣ Türkçe Українська اردو Tiếng Việt Winaray 粵語 中文 82 more Edit links This page was last edited on 31 July 2018, at 14 : 34 ( UTC ). Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution - ShareAlike License ; additional terms may apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Wikipedia ® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization. About Wikipedia

Question: where did the zodiac name cancer come from
Answer: Its name is Latin for crab