Carl Edward Sagan was born in Brooklyn in 1934 and earned a PhD in astronomy from the University of Chicago. He spent most of his career at Cornell, where his research on planetary atmospheres correctly predicted the high surface temperature of Venus and the seasonal dust storms of Mars. He was instrumental in NASA's Mariner, Viking and Voyager missions; the famous 'Pale Blue Dot' photograph taken by Voyager 1 in 1990 was his idea. His 1980 PBS series 'Cosmos: A Personal Voyage' became the most-watched documentary in American public-television history. His book 'The Demon-Haunted World' (1995) made the case for scientific scepticism as a civic virtue. He died of pneumonia following myelodysplastic syndrome in 1996 at sixty-two.
All Figures
Astronomer · Author · Public Educator of Science
Carl Sagan
1,934 CE – 1,996 CE
The Cornell astronomer whose television series Cosmos brought the universe into 500 million living rooms — and who fought to keep wonder, scepticism, and political seriousness in the public conversation about science.
Lifetime
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