Carl Sagan
1934–1996 1 entry
Biography
Carl Sagan was an American astronomer and writer who brought the wonders of the universe to millions of people. Born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1934, he studied at the University of Chicago and taught for most of his career at Cornell University. He took part in NASA’s exploration of the planets, from the Mariner and Viking missions to Mars to the Voyager probes, and helped to prepare the messages they carried, the Pioneer plaques and the Voyager Golden Record, meant for anyone who might one day find them.
His television series Cosmos, first shown in 1980, became one of the most watched science programmes ever made, and his book The Dragons of Eden won the Pulitzer Prize. In 1990, at his urging, the Voyager 1 probe turned its camera back and photographed the Earth from six billion kilometres away, a pale blue dot that gave its name to his book of 1994. He championed scientific scepticism, warned of the dangers of nuclear war and wrote the novel Contact, later made into a film. He died in 1996, at the age of sixty-two.
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