Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan
Sagan in the 1970s
Born	Carl Edward Sagan (1934-11-09)November 9, 1934 New York City, U.S.
Died	December 20, 1996(1996-12-20)(aged 62) Seattle,Washington, U.S.
Education	University of Chicago(BA,BS,MS,PhD)
Known for	Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Cosmos: A Personal Voyage Cosmos Voyager Golden Record Pioneer plaque The Dragons of Eden Contact Pale Blue Dot The Demon-Haunted World
Spouses	Lynn Margulis (m.1957;div.1965) Linda Salzman (m.1968;div.1981) Ann Druyan(m.1981)
Children	5, includingDorion,Nick,andSasha
Awards	Klumpke-Roberts Award(1974) NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal(1977) Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction(1978) Oersted Medal(1990) Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science(1993) National Academy of SciencesPublic Welfare Medal(1994)
Scientific career
Fields	Astronomy astrophysics cosmology astrobiology space science planetary science
Institutions	University of Chicago Cornell University Harvard University Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory University of California, Berkeley
Thesis	Physical studies of planets(1960)
Doctoral advisor	Gerard Kuiper
Doctoral students	David Morrison Clark Chapman James B. Pollack Owen Toon Christopher Chyba Steven Soter Reid Thompson Peter Wilson David Pieri
Signature

Carl Edward Sagan(November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer. He was very interested in what life on other planets would be like, which is known as SETI (search for extraterrestrial intelligence).

Sagan was a science communicator, which meant he taught people about science. He felt like the general public was losing interest in science, so he wrote many books and appeared on television to make it popular again. He mostly talked about planetary science and topics related to space. One of his most famous works includes.Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. Cosmoswas a television series about many different scientific topics, which Sagan co-wrote and narrated. It made him very famous outside the world of science.

Sagan supported the scientific method and scientific skepticism.

Education and work

Carl Sagan was born inBrooklyn,New York City.Carl's family wasJewish.His father, Samuel Sagan, was animmigrantfrom theRussian Empire.Samuel was born in 1905 in a city called Kamianets-Podilskyi.The Russian Empire no longer exists, so today Kamianets-Podilskyi is inUkraine.Samuel made clothes for a living. Carl's mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, was a housewife. Carl had a sister named Carol, who became a social worker. Carl was named after his grandmother, Chaiya (Clara).

Sagan attended theUniversity of Chicagoearning two degrees in physics. He followed with a doctorate in astronomy in 1960 and taught atHarvard Universityuntil 1968, when he moved toCornell University.

Sagan became a teacher and director at Cornell in 1971. He helped many unmanned spacecraft to explore outer space. He thought of the idea of putting a message on spacecraft which could be understood by any life from anotherplanetthat might find it. The first message sent into space was a large gold-platedlabelon the space probePioneer 10.He continued to make the messages better. The last message he helped with was theVoyager Golden Recordthat was sent out with theVoyagerspace probes.

Scientific achievements

He was well known as a writer who warned of the dangers ofnuclear winter.He helped people learn about the atmosphere ofVenus,seasonal changes onMars,and Saturn's moonTitan.He showed that the atmosphere of Venus is very hot and dense. He also said thatglobal warmingwas a growing, man-made danger like the natural development ofVenusinto a hot and dangerous planet withgreenhouse gases.He suggested that the seasonal changes on Mars were due to dust storms.

Sagan was among the first to guess that Titan and Jupiter's moonEuropamight have oceans or lakes, which means thatlifecould be there. Europa's underground ocean was later confirmed by the spacecraftGalileo.

Sagan thought the search for life on other planets was a good idea. He said scientists should listen with largeradio telescopesfor signals from other planets. He thought sending probes to other planets was a good idea. Sagan was editorIcarus(a magazine about space exploration) for 12 years. He helped start thePlanetary Societyand was a member of the SETI Institute Board of Trustees.

Social concerns

Sagan also believed that theDrake equationsuggested that many kinds of intelligent life could form, but that the lack of evidence (theFermi paradox) suggests that intelligent beings destroy themselves rather quickly. This made him keen to talk about ways that humanity could destroy itself, in the hope of avoiding such destruction.

Under the name "Mr. X," Sagan wrote aboutpotsmoking in the 1971 bookReconsideringMarijuana.Lester Grinspoon(the book's editor), told this to Keay Davidson, Sagan's biographer. Sagan said thatmarijuanahelped him write some of his books.

Making science popular

Sagan was very good at helping people to understand the cosmos. He gave the 1977/1978 Christmas Lectures for Young People at theRoyal Institution.He wrote (withAnn Druyan,who became his third wife) and made the very popular thirteen-partPBStelevision seriesCosmos;he also wrote books to help science become more popular (The Dragons of Eden,which won aPulitzer Prize,Broca's Brain,etc.) and a novel,Contact,that was a best-seller and was made into afilmstarringJodie Fosterin 1997. The film won the 1998Hugo Award.

AfterCosmos,Sagan was linked with the catchphrase "billions and billions", which he never used in the television series (but he often used the word "billions" ). He wrotePale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,which was chosen as a notable book of 1995 by TheNew York Times.

Not all scientists agreed with him. Although they all liked the way he made science popular, some were afraid that people would think that his personal opinions might be confused with real science. What he said about theKuwait oil well firesduring the first Gulf War were shown later to be wrong.

Later in his life, Sagan's books showed his skeptical, naturalistic view of the world. In his bookThe Demon-Haunted World,Sagan gave a list of mistakes he had made as an example of how science is self-correcting. The compilationBillions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the End of the Millennium,published after Sagan's death, contains essays written by Sagan, such as his views onabortion,and Ann Druyan's account of his death as a non-believer.

Legacy

After a long and difficult fight withmyelodysplasia,Sagan died ofpneumoniaat the age of 62, on December 20, 1996, at theFred Hutchinson Cancer Research CenterinSeattle, Washington.Sagan was very important, because he made science popular, and changed the way science was organized, and because he defendedhumanism,and argued against seeing things from only one point of view.

The landing site of the unmannedMars Pathfinderspacecraft was renamed theCarl Sagan Memorial Stationin honor of Dr. Sagan on July 5, 1997.Asteroid 2709 Saganis also named in his honor.

The 1997 movieContact(see above), based on Sagan's novel of the same name, and finished after his death, ends with the dedication "For Carl."

Awards and medals

• Apollo Achievement Award-National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Chicken LittleHonorable Mention - 1991 - National Anxiety Center
• Distinguished Public Service - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Emmy- Outstanding individual achievement - 1981 - PBS seriesCosmos
• Emmy - Outstanding Informational Series - 1981 - PBS seriesCosmos
• Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal - National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• Helen Caldicott Leadership Award- Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament
• Homer Award- 1997 -Contact
• Hugo Award- 1998 -Contact
• Hugo Award - 1981 -Cosmos
• Hugo Award - 1997 -The Demon-Haunted World
• In Praise of Reason Award - 1987 - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
• Isaac Asimov Award - 1994 - Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal
• John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award - American Astronautical Society
• John W. Campbell Memorial Award - 1974 -The Cosmic Connection
• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky Medal - Soviet Cosmonauts Federation
• Locus Poll Award 1986 -Contact
• Lowell Thomas Award - Explorers Club - 75th Anniversary
• Masursky Award - American Astronomical Society
• Peabody - 1980 - PBS seriesCosmos
• Public Welfare Medal - 1994 - National Academy of Sciences
• Pulitzer Prize for Literature - 1978 -The Dragons of Eden
• SF Chronicle Award - 1998 -Contact
• Carl Sagan Memorial Award - Named in his honor

Related books and media

• Sagan, Carl and Jonathon Norton Leonard and editors of Life,Planets.Time, Inc., 1966
• Sagan, Carl andI.S. Shklovskii,Intelligent Life in the Universe.Random House, 1966
• Sagan, Carl,Communicaton with Extraterrestrial Intelligence.MIT Press, 1973
• Sagan, Carl, et al.Mars and the Mind of Man.Harper & Row, 1973
• Sagan, Carl,Other Worlds.Bantam Books, 1975
• Sagan, Carl, et al.Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record.Random House, 1977
• Sagan, Carl et al.The Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War.Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985
• Sagan, Carl andJames Randi,The Faith Healers.Prometheus Books,May1989,ISBN0-87975-535-0,318 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Richard Turco,A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race.Random House, 1990
• Sagan, Carl,The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence.Ballantine Books, December 1989,ISBN0-345-34629-7,288 pgs
• Sagan, Carl,Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science.Ballantine Books,October1993,ISBN0-345-33689-5,416 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan,Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are.Ballantine Books, October 1993,ISBN0-345-38472-5,528 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan,Comet.Ballantine Books, February 1997,ISBN0-345-41222-2,496 pgs
• Sagan, Carl,Contact.Doubleday Books, August 1997,ISBN1-56865-424-3,352 pgs
• Sagan, Carl,Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space.Ballantine Books, September 1997,ISBN0-345-37659-5,384 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Ann Druyan,Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium.Ballantine Books, June 1998,ISBN0-345-37918-7,320 pgs
• Sagan, Carl,The Demon-Haunted World: Science As a Candle in the Dark.Ballantine Books, March 1997,ISBN0-345-40946-9,480 pgs
• Sagan, Carl and Jerome Agel,Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective.Cambridge University Press, January 15, 2000,ISBN0-521-78303-8,301 pgs
• Sagan, Carl,Cosmos.Random House, May 7, 2002,ISBN0-375-50832-5,384 pgs
• Zemeckis, Robert,Contact.Warner Studios, 1997, ASIN 0790736330IMDBArchived2003-06-03 at theWayback Machine
• Davidson, Keay,Carl Sagan: A Life.John Wiley & Sons, August 31, 2000,ISBN0-471-39536-6,560 pgs

Other websites

• In Memory of Carl Sagan.Tributes byTom McDonough,James RandiandMichael Shermer,and a selection of quotes from Sagan's works, published inSkeptic,Vol. 4, no. 4, 1996, pp. 10–17.
• CarlSagan.Com.Homepage ofCosmos Studios,which sells theCosmosseries on DVD and VHS video tape.
• Carl Sagan, Cornell astronomer, dies today (Dec. 20) in Seattle.Cornell Universitypress release on Sagan's death.
• Even in Death, Carl Sagan's Influence Is Still Cosmicby William J. Broad,The New York Times,November 30, 1998. Describes Sagan's legacy for space science.
• Astronomy Picture of the Day: Carl Sagan.December 26, 1996.
• Contact: A Eulogy to Carl Sagan,by Dr.Ray Bohlin,president ofProbe Ministries.Dr. Bohlin suggests that the movieContactcan serve as a fittingeulogyfor Carl Sagan. Sagan's scientific approach to the question, "was the universe created?" is critically analyzed by Bohlin from his Christian perspective.
• The Untold Truth about Carl SaganGrunge.com