Carl Edward Sagan (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
[2] 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.
[3] 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.