Every year, scaremongering posts about the Christian Rapture pop up—especially leading up to September 23rd. So here’s my 2025 version of a post I come back to often, because (spoiler alert) this happens every year.
The basis is Revelation 12:1–2:
“A great sign appeared in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet and a crown of twelve stars on her head. She was pregnant and cried out in pain as she was about to give birth.”
Sounds dramatic. But what it describes, astronomically, is a regular, predictable pattern.
The Sun appears to move through 13 constellations over the course of a year (not just the 12 zodiac signs), due to Earth’s orbit. The Sun enters the constellation Virgo on September 17th this year and stays there until October 30th, because Virgo is one of the widest constellations in the sky.
Meanwhile, the Moon moves faster through the sky from our perspective, completing a cycle roughly every 29 days. A New Moon occurs when it catches up with the Sun, and a Full Moon when it’s on the opposite side of the Earth. That Sun–Moon alignment (a “conjunction”) happens monthly.
In 2025, there’s a partial solar eclipse on September 21st, viewable from New Zealand, parts of Antarctica, and Pacific islands. That’s just the Moon and Sun lining up in Virgo—again, not a rare event. The Moon will then swing around again to meet the Sun in Virgo on October 20th/21st.
So, yes: the Sun is in Virgo for over six weeks every year. And the Moon meets the Sun once a month. Put those together, and this “great sign” occurs at least once a year, often twice.
Where did the obsession with September 23rd come from?
Back in the mid-2010s, someone noticed that an asteroid called 4580 Child (named after amateur astronomer Jack B. Child1) would be near the Sun and Moon in Virgo on September 23rd, 2017. Cue predictions that this was the Rapture. I think I overslept that day, because I didn’t notice anything unusual.
Since then, lazy TikTokers have recycled that date without recalculating anything.
For the record, the last time 4580 Child was near the Sun was February 25th, 2025—and it was in Aquarius. The next time will be May 23rd, 2026, in Taurus.
Want a genuinely interesting date? Try September 29th, 2027: Sun, Moon, and 4580 Child will all be in Virgo plus Mercury and Venus. You can even draw a line between the Moon and Child with the Sun almost exactly in the middle. The Moon will be higher in the sky than the Sun, but you can’t have everything.
Other future dates with Sun, Moon, and 4580 Child in Virgo:
- October 14th to 16th, 2031
- October 4th to 7th, 2040
- October 10th to 12th, 2053
But I’m sure, no matter how far we go into the future, someone on whatever replaces TikTok will still be sprouting about September 23rd.
- Oddly Child discovered 13 asteroids but 4580 Child wasn’t one of them. ↩︎