When you look up on a clear night, the stars shining overhead appear sprawled randomly across the sky. But for thousands of years, people from all over the globe have tried to make sense of this chaos by organizing the seemingly countless points of light into groups — or constellations — that represent animals, objects or mythological figures.

The International Astronomical Union (IAU) currently recognizes 88 official constellations, which were named throughout the ages by astronomers from Babylonia, Egypt, Greece, China, Persia and more.