Vox contributor Joss Fong explained what “Mercury in retrograde” means without the use of astrology, which commonly uses the term to explain unrelated unfortunate events. Fong explains how the planets move relative to one another to create the illusion that a planet changes direction in the night sky.
Astrologers regularly blame Mercury retrograde for a variety of everyday communication problems. But underneath those interpretations lies a much more interesting story about the limits of our Earth-bound perspective and the discovery of the solar system.
