Carl Sagan
“Cosmos, a golden record, and a pale blue pixel he asked us to take personally.”
In 1980, Sagan co-wrote and hosted the PBS series 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,' which reached at least 500 million people in 60 countries. It became the most-watched series in U.S. public television history for nearly a decade and made him the world's most famous popularizer of science.
Scientist and Spokesman
Born in Brooklyn, Sagan earned a reputation as both a working planetary scientist and the era's great popularizer of astronomy. After Harvard denied him tenure, he spent nearly 30 years at Cornell University.
Reaching the Public
His 1980 PBS series 'Cosmos' brought the universe into living rooms worldwide, becoming public television's most-watched program for nearly a decade. The companion book topped bestseller lists for 70 weeks.
Cosmic Legacy
Sagan advised NASA on the Mariner, Viking, Voyager and Galileo missions and championed the search for extraterrestrial life. He died in 1996 of pneumonia, a complication of a bone-marrow disease, at age 62.
Career Timeline
- 1934Born in Brooklyn.
- 1980Cosmos on PBS.
- 1994Pale Blue Dot.
- 1995The Demon-Haunted World.
- 1996Dies in Seattle at sixty-two.
Biggest Hits
- Sagan helped design the Pioneer plaque and Voyager Golden Record, humanity's messages to any extraterrestrials who might find the probes.
- He proposed the famous 'Pale Blue Dot' photo, having Voyager 1 turn back to image Earth from 3.7 billion miles away.
Portrait: NASA/JPL · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons