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Portrait of Adam Riess

Adam Riess

Adam Riess (born December 16, 1969, Washington, D.C., United States), aged 56, is an American astrophysicist. Riess's honours include Nobel Prize in Physics, Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics and Albert Einstein Medal.

Adam Riess’s zodiac sign is Sagittarius, Chinese zodiac is Earth Rooster, with Life Path 8 in numerology.

Your match with Adam

Free, no account, stays on this device. Add a birth time later.

Adam Riess’s AsterNym identity

The Evergreen Storyteller

Wood represents growth. Wood-led charts are associated with patience, adaptability and the drive to keep developing. Life Path 8 represents mastery: ambition, resources and turning sustained effort into visible results.

Wood Day Master (BaZi) × mutable Sun × Life Path 8, on the mental plane.

How common is the name Adam in the U.S.?

#101

US rank in 2025

~582,453

Americans share it since 1880

1984

its peak year

In 1969, 2,860 American boys and 17 girls were registered Adam — 114th among boys and 3,318th among girls on the SSA's list that year.

US Social Security Administration public records

What Adam’s name adds up to

Worked from the name as published, letter by letter.

8

Expression · direction and scale

7

Soul Urge · understanding

1

Personality · self-directed

The name opens on A (1) and closes on M (4). The value it repeats most is 1, which numerology reads as drive.

Pythagorean letter values · A=1 to I=9, then J=1 again

Adam’s lucky numbers, colours and stones

Traditional correspondences, calculated not chosen.

Lucky numbers

8 · 5 · 7

Lucky colours

Yellow & Ochre

Lucky day

Thursday

Direction

• Center

Season

the turning of seasons

Stones

Turquoise, Yellow Sapphire, Citrine

Flower constellation

🤍 Narcissus · 🌸 Peony · 🌼 Chrysanthemum

Frost white · Rose-gold · Gold

Eight Mansions · Kua number

Kua 3, trigram Zhen 震, East group. Best direction South, worst Southwest.

A different tradition from the Direction above, and a different question: feng shui reads it from the solar year 1969, which turns at Li Chun rather than at New Year, and from sex, which Wikidata records as male. Work out your own →

The record

What sets Adam apart

The Robert J. Trumpler Award came in 1999, when Adam Riess was 30.

The schooling ran through Watchung Hills Regional High School and University of California, Berkeley.

On Wikipedia the categories read People from Warren Township, New Jersey, Fellows of the American Astronomical Society and Jewish astronomers.

Lei Jun shares the birth date exactly, so the chart below is nearly the same document for them both. What follows the chart is where they part.

Educated at
Watchung Hills Regional High School, University of California, Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Awards
Albert Einstein Medal (2011), Nobel Prize in Physics (2011) and Robert J. Trumpler Award (1999)
Citizenship
United States
Languages
English
Wikipedia editions
70

What the chart says

Adam, according to the stars

Core essence

Adam is the friend who says "let's just go" and means today. The core of Adam is faith that the world is bigger and better than the room they are in, and a restlessness to go and check. They are honest to the point of it being a sport, funny by accident, and impossible to keep small. Freedom is not a preference, it is oxygen.

How Adam wants to be loved

Adam wants to be loved by someone who is also their favourite travel companion. Venus in Sagittarius needs laughter, honesty and a long leash, and gives the same. Possessiveness kills it; adventure feeds it. Go somewhere new with Adam and watch them fall for you again.

How Adam creates

How Adam makes things happen: they find the gap and grow through it. A Yin Wood day master is the vine, flexible, quietly relentless, better at working around a wall than at knocking it down. Adam creates by adapting, by connecting people, by making the awkward thing fit. Underestimate them and you will look up one day to find them everywhere.

Instinct

Instinct: Adam is sharp and confident, a Rooster year, and their gut reaction is to say the true thing out loud. Observant, hardworking, honest, and proud of looking the part. The Earth year grounds it: practical, patient, someone people lean on.

Purpose

Purpose: Life Path 8 is the powerhouse. Adam is here to build something big and run it well: money, influence, a body of work with their name on it. Ambitious, capable, generous when winning, and learning that power is for lifting people.

Triggers

Triggers: cruelty, and being cornered. Mars in Pisces does not fight straight; Adam slips away, absorbs it, or turns it into something creative instead. Anger becomes art or empathy. The lesson is learning that they are allowed to take up space and say the hard thing.

Computed from Adam's birth date. Working below.

Where Adam sits

Six lines

Adam’s dot comes from the chart; yours is where you put it.

Intimate circleWide network
Adam

You likely balance a tight inner circle with a wider orbit you dip into.

DeliberateSpontaneous
Adam

You may leap first and adjust as you go. Waiting can feel like losing momentum.

PrivateExpressive
Adam

You may wear your feelings openly. What you feel tends to show.

Cool off firstResolve immediately
Adam

You may want to resolve tension the moment it appears, rather than let it sit.

PracticalVisionary
Adam

You may favor what's proven and workable over the untested idea.

Gradual trustImmediate chemistry
Adam

You may feel connection fast. Chemistry can arrive before the details do.

Tap each line where you sit.

All twelve of yours, from your birth date →

✦ A real star from their birth night

Dedicate a star to Adam Riess

Three stars chosen from the real sky above Washington on the night they were born. Choose the story that connects you.

Adam’s birth-night reference starAlgolblue-white · PerseusAlgol, in Perseus. A blue-white star, 83.5° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the bright star nearest the zenith.Dedicate Algol →The warmest lightProcyonyellow-white · Canis MinorProcyon, in Canis Minor. A yellow-white star, 14.3° above the horizon at 9 p.m. local time, the warmest-toned bright star up that night.Dedicate Procyon →

A 9 p.m. reference sky, not the birth minute. Dedications are commemorative and confer no ownership of stars.

The sky over Washington that night

Computed for 38.90°N, 9 p.m. local sky.

At 9 p.m. the star closest to straight overhead at Washington was Algol, in Perseus, 83.5° up.

Of the 105 catalog stars above the horizon, Sirius was the brightest.

Washington sits at 38.9°N, low enough that no headline star is circumpolar: everything bright rises and sets there.

Canopus, Rigil Kentaurus, Achernar, Hadar, Acrux, Mimosa and Toliman cannot be seen from Washington at all: they sit past the −51.1° declination limit this latitude imposes.

Sun 48° below the horizon, Moon up and 61% lit at first quarter.

How unusual Adam's chart is

Chart pattern score

34 / 100 · Quietly distinctive

3 planets at a critical degree · 1 unaspected planet

An AsterNym index built from stelliums, yods, grand crosses and chart shape. It is not a population percentile, and a high score is not a better chart. Without a birth time the houses are left out of it.

Score your own chart →

Sagittarius Sun

Blunt, cheerful, gone by morning.

Adam Riess's Sun was in Sagittarius for the whole of December 16, 1969, so no birth time is needed to settle it.

What Sagittarius means →

Earth Rooster

Prepared for everything, twice.

Adam Riess was born on December 16, 1969, which falls in a Earth Rooster year of the Chinese calendar.

What the Rooster means →

Life Path 8

Turns effort into standing.

Adam Riess's birth date, December 16, 1969, reduces to Life Path 8 under the numerology method AsterNym uses.

What Life Path 8 means →

What stands out in Adam’s chart

Adam’s birth chart

Reference chart · birth time unknown

Positions are checked across the whole date. The Moon ranges from 26° to 9° Pisces or Aries depending on the hour.

AriesTaurusGeminiCancerLeoVirgoLibraScorpioSagittariusCapricornAquariusPisces123456789101112Mars flows with Jupiter · Trine, 0.8° orbMars grinds against Neptune · Square, 1.4° orbMars opens doors for Saturn · Sextile, 1.5° orbNeptune opens doors for Pluto · Sextile, 2° orbMercury grinds against Uranus · Square, 2.4° orbJupiter faces off with Saturn · Opposition, 2.4° orbSun grinds against Pluto · Square, 2.8° orbMoon flows with Neptune · Trine, 3.5° orbSun in Sagittarius · 24°35′☉24°Moon in Aries · 2°51′☽2°Mercury in Capricorn · 10°51′☿10°Venus in Sagittarius · 15°13′♀15°Mars in Pisces · 0°50′♂0°Jupiter in Scorpio · 0°00′♃0°Saturn in Taurus · 2°21′ · retrograde♄℞2°Uranus in Libra · 8°26′♅8°Neptune in Scorpio · 29°23′♆29°Pluto in Virgo · 27°20′♇27°

No birth time, so the houses are a solar chart: the Sun’s sign counts as house 1.

Tap a planet, a sign, a house, an aspect line or an element to see what it means and what sits in it.
Lines drawn
Conjunction 0°
Sextile 60°
Square 90°
Trine 120°
Opposition 180°

Placements

Tap one to light it on the wheel.

The working: aspects, Chiron and the asteroids, dominant planets and configurationsshow

Aspects across every possible birth time

  • stableMarstrineJupiter0.5° to 1.1° orb

    Adam’s drive flows straight into their growth. A talent so smooth it can go unnoticed.

  • stableMarssextileSaturn1.1° to 1.9° orb

    Adam’s drive opens doors for their discipline.

  • stableMarssquareNeptune1.1° to 1.8° orb

    Adam’s drive grinds against their imagination. The angle that irritates, and the one that teaches.

  • stableMercurysquareUranus1.7° to 3.1° orb

  • stableNeptunesextilePluto2.0° to 2.1° orb

  • stableSunsquarePluto2.3° to 3.3° orb

  • stableJupiteroppositionSaturn2.3° to 2.4° orb

  • possibleMoonoppositionUranusorb from 0.0° to 12.3° depending on birth time

  • possibleMoontrineNeptuneorb from 0.1° to 10.1° depending on birth time

  • possibleMoonoppositionPlutoorb from 0.1° to 12.2° depending on birth time

  • possibleSunsquareMoonorb from 2.0° to 14.4° depending on birth time

  • possibleMoonsquareMercuryorb from 2.1° to 14.0° depending on birth time

Chart signature

Elements

  • Fire3 of 10
  • Earth3 of 10
  • Air1 of 10
  • Water3 of 10

Modalities

  • Cardinal3 of 10
  • Fixed3 of 10
  • Mutable4 of 10

Counted across the ten planets by sign.

Adam’s Chiron, Ceres, Eros, Hygiea and Lilith

What astrologers make of these five, at noon values.

  • ⚷ ChironAries 2°23′

    centaur (2060) · the wound and what is learnt from it

  • ⚳ CeresAquarius 15°49′ (moves 0.34° over the day)

    dwarf planet (1) · how a person nurtures and wants to be nurtured

  • ♡ ErosScorpio 4°59′ (moves 0.82° over the day)

    near-Earth asteroid (433) · what draws them and how they desire

  • ⚕ Hygiea ℞Gemini 3°23′ (moves 0.17° over the day)

    main-belt asteroid (10) · health, routine and what keeps them well

  • ⚸ Black Moon LilithLeo 0°57′ (moves 0.11° over the day)

    mean lunar apogee · the part that refuses to be tamed

Aspects to the asteroids and Lilith

  • Ceres sextile Venus 0.6°
  • Black Moon Lilith square Jupiter 0.9°
  • Black Moon Lilith square Saturn 1.4°
  • Black Moon Lilith trine Neptune 1.6°
  • Eros opposition Saturn 2.6°
  • Hygiea square Mars 2.6°
  • Chiron trine Neptune 3.0°

Adam’s dominant planets

  1. 1. ♃ Jupiter7 pts

    rules the Sun sign, Sagittarius; disposes Sun, Venus; 2 major aspects

  2. 2. ♇ Pluto4 pts

    disposes Jupiter, Neptune; 2 major aspects

  3. 3. ♂ Mars3 pts

    3 major aspects

Configurations in Adam’s chart

No stellium, grand trine, T-square, grand cross, yod or kite — the common case.

Minor aspects

semi-sextile, semi-square, quintile, sesquiquadrate, biquintile, quincunx.

  • Venus semi-square Jupiter 0.2°
  • Jupiter semi-sextile Neptune 0.6°
  • Saturn biquintile Pluto 1.0°
  • Mercury quintile Jupiter 1.2°

Born the same day as Adam

Lei Jun was born on December 16, 1969 too, the same date and the same year. With no birth time for any of them the chart is identical, not similar: the same Sun, the same pillars, the same Life Path. One thing a birthday twin cannot share is the latitude. At 38.9°N, the sky above Washington stops at −51.1° declination. Same sky, different lives.

More people like Adam

Other astronomers

Born in United States

More charts like Adam’s

Fellow Sagittarius suns

All about Sagittarius →

Born in Rooster years

Year of the Rooster →

Also born on December 16

Fellow Yin Wood day masters

What a Day Master is →

Other Sagittarius Rooster charts

Other Evergreen Storytellers

The Evergreen Storyteller explained →

Famous people with Life Path 8

Life Path numbers explained →

From the journal: Polarities: why each sign has an opposite · How the Chinese zodiac differs across Vietnam, Korea and Japan

Adam’s cards

Computed from December 16, 1969. Tap to flip.

Birth tarot card

Strength

AsterNym identity card

The Evergreen Storyteller

Western zodiac

Sagittarius

Chinese zodiac

Rooster 酉

Life Path

8 · Achiever

♃ Ruled by Jupiter

Tin Sn

The working: BaZi pillarsshow

BaZi pillars

Day Master: yin Wood.

Year

己

yin Earth

酉

Rooster

Metal

roots & early life

Month

丙

yang Fire

子

Rat

Water

work & drive

Day

day master

乙

yin Wood

丑

Ox

Earth

you & partnership

Where this comes from, and how it is worked out

Adam’s birth date and birthplace come from Wikidata Q106454 (CC0), as do the occupations, works and awards above. With no documented birth time this chart is rated X on the Rodden scale, the astrological convention for how well evidenced a birth time is. The banner above lists what that leaves out. Entries are matched to Wikidata by entity id rather than by name, kept at day precision, and dropped where sources disagree on the date.

Tropical zodiac, whole-sign houses, modern rulers. Aspects on the western_v1 orb policy; minor ones at 1.5° to 2.5°, skipped where a major already holds. Minor bodies from JPL Horizons heliocentric vectors, Lilith as mean apogee. Dominance is an AsterNym score — rulerships, dispositors, aspect count — so other methods can name a different leader.

Portrait by Holger Motzkau, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

The same Adam Riess at Wikipedia and MusicBrainz.

Roster last reviewed September 10, 2026. The full method: how it works.

Traditional interpretations, not facts or predictions, and not endorsed by Adam Riess.

Quick answers about Adam Riess’s chart

How old is Adam Riess?
Adam Riess is 56 years old, born December 16, 1969 in Washington, D.C., United States.
What zodiac sign is Adam Riess?
Adam Riess is a Sagittarius: born December 16, 1969, which puts the Sun in Sagittarius for the whole of that day.
What is Adam Riess's Chinese zodiac animal?
The Rooster, with the Earth element, from the Chinese lunar year of the December 16, 1969 birth.
What is Adam Riess's Life Path number?
Life Path 8, calculated in numerology.
What is Adam Riess's Chiron sign?
Chiron in Aries at 2°. Position from JPL Horizons.
Where is Adam Riess's Black Moon Lilith?
Mean Black Moon Lilith in Leo at 0°. This is the mean lunar apogee; the osculating Lilith some tables use can sit up to 30° away.
What is Adam Riess's dominant planet?
Jupiter, on AsterNym's dominance score (7 points: rules the Sun sign, Sagittarius; disposes Sun, Venus; 2 major aspects). Pluto is second and Mars third. Other sites weight rulerships and aspects differently and can name a different leader.

More charts to explore