Carl Sagan: the great hero of space

 

By presenting science in language easily understandable to ordinary people, Carl Sagan played a leading role in making science popular — he was one of the brightest among such scientists. Time magazine described him as America’s most successful science communicator. Among world-renowned scientists, only a handful have, alongside complex and rigorous scientific research, also written about science in simple language for the public. Carl Sagan was one of those few — in addition to publishing more than six hundred research papers, he also wrote more than two dozen popular science books. Through his television programs, he brought science directly into people’s homes. His thirteen-episode television documentary Cosmos was broadcast in nearly sixty countries around the world, and nearly six hundred million viewers watched it with fascination. In this documentary, he explained in a lively and accessible style the nature of planets in space, the origin and evolution of life on Earth, and whether life might exist on planets beyond Earth. His documentaries, books, and research greatly enriched twentieth-century space science and astronomy.

Carl Edward Sagan was born in New York City, USA, on November 9, 1934. His father, Samuel Sagan, was a manager in a clothing factory. His mother, Rachel Sagan, was a homemaker. Carl Sagan’s curiosity about the mysteries of space began from early childhood, when he would visit the neighbourhood library with his mother and pore over books filled with images of planets and stars.

After earning his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in physics from the University of Chicago, he completed his PhD in astronomy in 1960. His advisor was the renowned astronomer Gerard Kuiper — the Kuiper Belt in our solar system was named after him. Carl Sagan conducted detailed research on the atmospheres of Jupiter and Venus. He determined the properties of Venus’s unusually high-pressure atmosphere and its likely causes.

Carl Sagan was directly involved in many NASA space missions. He designed the Golden Record sent aboard Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977 — a message sent beyond Earth containing images, sounds, and greetings in many languages from humans and other living beings, intended to attract the attention of any intelligent extraterrestrial life.

Carl Sagan devoted immense effort to making science popular. He passed away on December 20, 1996, at the age of only 62.