Carl Edward Sagan (/ˈseɪɡən/; November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences. His contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of Venus. However, he is best known for his contributions to the scientific research of extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation. Sagan assembled the first physical messages that were sent into space: the Pioneer plaque and the Voyager Golden Record, universal messages that could potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find them.He published more than 600 scientific papers and articles and was author, co-author or editor of more than 20 books. Sagan is known for many of his popular science books, such as The Dragons of Eden, Broca's Brain and Pale Blue Dot, and for the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which he narrated and co-wrote. The most widely watched series in the history of American public television, Cosmos has been seen by at least 500 million people across 60 different countries. The book Cosmos was published to accompany the series. He also wrote the science fiction novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.Sagan always advocated scientific skeptical inquiry and the scientific method, pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He spent most of his career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan and his works received numerous awards and honors, including the NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, the National Academy of Sciences Public Welfare Medal, the Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction for his book The Dragons of Eden, and, regarding Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, two Emmy Awards, the Peabody Award and the Hugo Award. He married three times and had five children. After suffering from myelodysplasia, Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 on December 20, 1996.
Nick Sagan, Dorion Sagan, Jeremy Sagan, Sasha Sagan, Samuel Sagan
Parents
Samuel Sagan, Rachel Molly Gruber
Siblings
Carol Sagan
Awards
Peabody Award, NASA Distinguished Public Service Medal, Public Welfare Medal, Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction, Oersted Medal, Klumpke-Roberts Award, Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation, Locus Award for Best First Novel, Hugo Award for Best Related Work, NASA Distinguished Service Medal, ...
Nominations
Locus Award for Best Science Fiction Novel, Locus Award for Best Non-Fiction, National Book Award for Science (Paperback), National Book Award for Science (Hardcover)
Movies
Contact, The World After Nuclear War, Wanderers, Extinction
Star Sign
Scorpio
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Trademark
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He mostly wore turtlenecks with suit coats.
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Quote
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[Cosmos, PBS TV, 21 December 1980] We are one planet.
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[About "Blue Pale Dot", a photo taken by space probe Voyager I in 14 February 1990] Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam. The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand. It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known.
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[Cosmos, PBS TV, 21 December 1980] The only sacred truth is that there are no sacred truths.
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When Kepler found his long-cherished belief did not agree with the most precise observation, he accepted the uncomfortable fact. He preferred the hard truth to his dearest illusions. That is the heart of science.
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To make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe. [Cosmos, PBS TV, 23 November 1980]
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In science it often happens that scientists say, "You know that's a really good argument; my position is mistaken," and then they would actually change their minds and you never hear that old view from them again. They really do it. It doesn't happen as often as it should, because scientists are human and change is sometimes painful. But it happens every day. I cannot recall the last time someting like that happened in politics or religion." "The method of science is tried and true. It is not perfect, it's just the best we have. And to abandon it, with its skeptical protocols, is the pathway to a dark age.
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Who are we? We find that we live on an insignificant planet of a humdrum star lost in a galaxy tucked away in some forgotten corner of a universe in which there are far more galaxies than people.
"I never said it. Honest." - The opening line in his last book called "Billions and Billions." He was right -- the phrase was coined by Johnny Carson imitating him.
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The Cosmos is all that is, or ever was, or ever will be.
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[About religion] "I don't want to believe. I want to know."
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We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology.
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Billions upon billions...
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Fact
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He has an Erdös-Bacon-Sabbath number of 9, which is among the lowest on the planet.
He was the visual inspiration for Earl Meagan, a character from the V comics, based on the popular V (1984) TV series.
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He was elected into the 2008 New Jersey Hall of Fame for his services to Enterprise.
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Five children: Dorion and Jeremy from his first marriage, Nick Sagan from his second marriage and a daughter Sasha and son Sam from his third marriage.
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Despite being known for, and frequently quoted with, his famous phrase "billions and billions...", Carl Sagan never actually said it during the entire single-season run of Cosmos (1980). The actual phrase is "billions UPON billions," and the complete quote which includes this often-misquoted phrase is "A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and stars - billions upon billions of stars."
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Biography in: "American National Biography". Supplement 1, pp. 537-540. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.
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Named 1981 Humanist of the Year by the American Humanist Association "in recognition of his work as an educator, skeptic, activist, and populizer of science".
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Suffered from rare blood disorder that led to cancer and ultimately his death.