Carl Edward Sagan (Nueva York, Estados Unidos, 9 de noviembre de 1934-Seattle, Estados

Unidos, 20 de diciembre de 1996) fue un astrnomo, astrofsico, cosmlogo, escritor y divulgador

cientfico estadounidense.
Sagan public numerosos artculos cientficos y comunicaciones 1 y fue autor, coautor o editor de
ms de una veintena de libros. Defensor del pensamiento escptico cientfico y del mtodo
cientfico, fue tambin pionero de la exobiologa, promotor de la bsqueda de inteligencia
extraterrestre a travs del Proyecto SETI e impuls el envo de mensajes a bordo de sondas
espaciales, destinados a informar a posibles civilizaciones extraterrestres acerca de la cultura
humana. Mediante sus observaciones de la atmsfera de Venus, fue de los primeros cientficos
en estudiar el efecto invernadero a escala planetaria.
En la Universidad Cornell, Carl Sagan fue el primer cientfico en ocupar la Ctedra David Duncan
de Astronoma y Ciencias del Espacio, creada en 1976, y fue director del Laboratorio de Estudios
Planetarios.
Carl Sagan ha sido muy popular por sus libros de divulgacin cientfica en 1978, gan
el Premio Pulitzer de Literatura General de No Ficcin por su libro Los Dragones del Edn, por
la galardonada serie documental de TV Cosmos: Un viaje personal, producida en 1980, de la que
fue narrador y coautor, y por el libro Cosmos que fue publicado como complemento de la serie,
adems de por la novela Contacto, en la que se basa la pelcula homnima de 1997. A lo largo
de su vida, Sagan recibi numerosos premios y condecoraciones por su labor como
comunicador de la ciencia y la cultura. Est considerado como uno de los divulgadores de la
ciencia ms carismticos e influyentes, gracias a su capacidad de transmitir las ideas cientficas
y los aspectos culturales al pblico no especializado con sencillez no exenta de rigor, lo que ha
dado origen a multitud de vocaciones cientficas entre el pblico general.

Infancia y adolescencia
Carl Sagan naci en Brooklyn, Nueva York,2 en una familia de judos ucranianos. Su padre, Sam
Sagan, era un obrero de la industria textil nacido en Kamenets-Podolsk, Ucrania,3 y su madre,
Rachel Molly Gruber, era ama de casa. Carl recibi su nombre en honor de la madre biolgica de
Rachel, Chaiya Clara; en palabras de Sagan, la madre que ella nunca conoci. Sagan se gradu
en la Rahway High School de Rahway, Nueva Jersey, en 1951.4
Carl tena una hermana, Carol; la familia viva en un modesto apartamento cerca del Ocano
Atlntico, en Bensonhurst, un barrio de Brooklyn. Segn Sagan, eran judos reformistas, el ms
liberal de los tres principales grupos judos. Tanto Sagan como su hermana coinciden en que su
padre no era especialmente religioso, pero que su madre indudablemente crea en Dios, y

participaba activamente en el templo...; y slo serva carne kosher.4 Durante el auge de la Gran
Depresin, su padre tuvo que aceptar un empleo como acomodador de cine.
Segn el bigrafo Keay Davidson, la guerra interior de Sagan era resultado de la estrecha
relacin que mantena con sus padres, quienes eran opuestos en muchos sentidos. Sagan
remontaba sus posteriores impulsos analticos a su madre, una mujer que conoci la pobreza
extrema siendo nia, y que haba crecido casi sin hogar en la ciudad de Nueva York durante la I
Guerra Mundial y la dcada de 1920.4 Tena las ambiciones propias de una mujer joven, pero
bloqueadas por las restricciones sociales, por su pobreza, por ser mujer y esposa, y por ser de
etnia juda. Davidson seala que ella, por tanto, adoraba a su nico hijo, Carl. l hara realidad
sus sueos no cumplidos.4
Sin embargo, su capacidad para sorprenderse vena de su padre, que era un tranquilo y
bondadoso fugitivo del Zar. En su tiempo libre, regalaba manzanas a los pobres o ayudaba a
suavizar las tensiones entre patronos y obreros en la tumultuosa industria textil de Nueva
York.4 Aunque intimidado por la brillantez de Carl, por sus infantiles parloteos sobre estrellas y
dinosaurios, se tom con calma la curiosidad de su hijo, como parte de su educacin. 4 Aos ms
tarde, como escritor y cientfico, Sagan recurrira a sus recuerdos de la infancia para ilustrar
ideas cientficas, como hizo en su libro El mundo y sus demonios.4 Sagan describe as la
influencia de sus padres en su pensamiento posterior:
Mis padres no eran cientficos. No saban casi nada de ciencia. Pero al iniciarme simultneamente al
escepticismo y a hacerme preguntas, me ensearon los dos modos de pensamiento que conviven
precariamente y que son fundamentales para el mtodo cientfico. 5

La Exposicin Universal de 1939

Sagan recordaba que vivi una de sus mejores experiencias cuando, con cuatro o cinco aos de
edad, sus padres lo llevaron a la Exposicin Universal de Nueva York de 1939. La muestra se
convirti en un punto de inflexin en su vida. Tiempo despus recordaba el mapa mvil de
la Amrica del Maana:
Se vean hermosas autopistas y cruces a nivel y pequeos coches General Motors que llevaban gente a
los rascacielos, edificios con bonitos pinculos, arbotantes... y todo tena una pinta genial! 4

En otras exhibiciones, recordaba cmo una lmpara que iluminaba una clula fotoelctrica
creaba un sonido crujiente, y cmo el sonido de un diapasn se converta en una onda en
un osciloscopio. Tambin fue testigo de la tecnologa del futuro que reemplazara a la radio:
la televisin. Sagan escribi:
Sencillamente, el mundo contena maravillas que yo nunca haba imaginado. Cmo poda convertirse un
tono en una imagen, y una luz convertirse en ruido? 4

Tambin pudo ver uno de los eventos ms publicitados de la Exposicin: el entierro de

una cpsula del tiempo en Flushing Meadows, que contena recuerdos de la dcada de 1930
para ser recuperados por las generaciones venideras de un futuro milenio. La cpsula del tiempo
emocion a Carl, escribe Davidson. De adulto, Sagan y sus colegas crearon cpsulas del tiempo

similares, pero para enviarlas a la galaxia: la Placa de la Pioneer y el Disco de Oro de las
Voyager, fueron producto de los recuerdos de Sagan sobre la Exposicin Universal. 4

Curiosidad por la naturaleza

Poco despus de ingresar en la escuela elemental, Sagan comenz a expresar una fuerte
curiosidad por la naturaleza. Sagan recordaba sus primeras visitas en solitario a la biblioteca
pblica, a la edad de cinco aos, cuando su madre le regal un carn de lector. Quera saber
qu eran las estrellas, ya que ninguno de sus amigos ni sus padres saban darle una respuesta
clara:
Fui al bibliotecario y ped un libro sobre las estrellas... Y la respuesta fue sensacional. Result que el Sol
era una estrella pero que estaba muy cerca. Las estrellas eran soles, pero tan lejanos que slo parecan
puntitos de luz... De repente, la escala del universo se abri para m. Fue una especie de experiencia
religiosa. Haba algo magnfico en ello, una grandiosidad, una escala que jams me ha abandonado. Que
nunca me abandonar.4

Por la poca en que tena seis o siete aos, Sagan y un amigo fueron al Museo Americano de
Historia Natural de la ciudad de Nueva York. All estuvieron en el Planetario Hayden y pasearon
por las exhibiciones de objetos espaciales del museo, como los meteoritos, y las muestras
de dinosaurios y animales en entornos naturales. Sagan escribi sobre esas visitas:
Me quedaba paralizado ante las representaciones en dioramas realistas de los animales y de sus hbitats
de todo el mundo. Pinginos sobre el hielo apenas iluminado de la Antrtida... una familia de gorilas, con el
macho golpendose el pecho... un oso grizzly en pie sobre sus patas traseras, de diez o doce pies de alto,
y mirndome fijamente a los ojos.4

Los padres de Sagan ayudaron a alimentar el creciente inters de ste por la ciencia
comprndole juegos de qumica y material de lectura.6 Su inters por el espacio era, sin
embargo, su principal foco, especialmente despus de leer las historias de ciencia-ficcin de
escritores como Edgar Rice Burroughs, quienes estimulaban su imaginacin acerca de cmo
sera la vida en otros planetas, como Marte. Segn el bigrafo Ray Spangenburg, estos primeros
aos en los que Sagan trataba de comprender los misterios de los planetas, se convirtieron en
una fuerza motora en su vida, una chispa continua para su intelecto, y una bsqueda que jams
sera olvidada.5

Formacin y carrera cientfica

Carl Sagan se matricul en la Universidad de Chicago, donde particip en la Ryerson
Astronomical Society,7 gradundose en artes, en 1954, con honores especiales y generales; en
ciencias, en 1955, y obteniendo un mster en Fsica, en 1956, para luego doctorarse
en Astronoma y Astrofsica, en 1960.8 Durante su etapa de pregrado, Sagan trabaj en el
laboratorio del genetista Hermann Joseph Muller. De 1960 a 1962, Sagan disfrut de una Beca
Miller para la Universidad de California, Berkeley. De 1962 a 1968, trabaj en el Smithsonian
Astrophysical Observatory en Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Sagan imparti clases e investig en la Universidad de Harvard hasta 1968, ao en el que se
incorpor a la Universidad Cornell, en Ithaca, Nueva York. En 1971, fue nombrado profesor titular

y director del Laboratorio de Estudios Planetarios. De 1972 a 1981, Sagan fue Director Asociado
del Centro de Radiofsica e Investigacin Espacial de Cornell. Desde 1976 hasta su muerte, fue
el primer titular de la Ctedra David Duncan de Astronoma y Ciencias del Espacio.
Sagan estuvo vinculado al programa espacial estadounidense desde los inicios de ste. Desde
la dcada de 1950, trabaj como asesor de la NASA, donde uno de sus cometidos fue dar las
instrucciones del Programa Apolo a los astronautas participantes antes de partir hacia la Luna.
Sagan particip en muchas de las misiones que enviaron naves espaciales robticas a explorar
el Sistema Solar, preparando experimentos para varias expediciones. Concibi la idea de aadir
un mensaje universal y perdurable a las naves destinadas a abandonar el sistema solar que
pudiese ser potencialmente comprensible por cualquier inteligencia extraterrestre que lo
encontrase. Sagan prepar el primer mensaje fsico enviado al espacio exterior:
una placa anodizada, unida a la sonda espacial Pioneer 10, lanzada en 1972. La Pioneer 11, que
llevaba otra copia de la placa, fue lanzada al ao siguiente. Sagan continu refinando sus
diseos; el mensaje ms elaborado que ayud a desarrollar y preparar fue el Disco de Oro de las
Voyager, que fue enviado con las sondas espaciales Voyager en 1977. Sagan se opuso
frecuentemente a la decisin de financiar el Transbordador Espacial y la Estacin Espacial a
expensas de futuras misiones robticas.9
Sagan imparti un curso de pensamiento crtico en la Universidad Cornell, hasta su muerte en
1996.

Logros cientficos
Las contribuciones de Sagan fueron vitales para el descubrimiento de las altas temperaturas
superficiales del planeta Venus. A comienzos de la dcada de 1960 nadie saba a ciencia cierta
cules eran las condiciones bsicas de la superficie de dicho planeta, y Sagan enumer las
posibilidades en un informe que posteriormente fue divulgado en un libro de TimeLife titulado Planetas. En su opinin, Venus era un planeta seco y muy caliente en oposicin al
paraso templado que otros imaginaban. Haba investigado las emisiones de radio procedentes
de Venus y llegado a la conclusin de que la temperatura superficial de ste deba de ser de
unos 380 C. Como cientfico visitante del Laboratorio de Propulsin a Chorro de la NASA,
particip en las primeras misiones delPrograma Mariner a Venus, trabajando en el diseo y
gestin del proyecto. En 1962, la sonda Mariner 2 confirm sus conclusiones sobre las
condiciones superficiales del planeta.
Sagan fue de los primeros en plantear la hiptesis de que una de las lunas de Saturno, Titn,
podra albergar ocanos de compuestos lquidos en su superficie, y que una de las lunas
de Jpiter, Europa, podra tener ocanos de agua subterrneos. Esto hara que Europa fuese
potencialmente habitable por formas de vida.10 El ocano subterrneo de agua de Europa fue
posteriormente confirmado de forma indirecta por la sonda espacial Galileo. El misterio de la

bruma rojiza de Titn tambin fue resuelto con la ayuda de Sagan, debindose a molculas
orgnicas complejas en constante lluvia sobre la superficie de la luna saturniana. 11
Sagan tambin contribuy a la mejor comprensin de las atmsferas de Venus y Jpiter y de los
cambios estacionales de Marte. Determin que la atmsfera de Venus es extremadamente
caliente y densa con presiones en gradual aumento hasta la superficie planetaria. Tambin
percibi el calentamiento global como un peligro creciente de origen humano y lo compar con la
evolucin natural de Venus hacia un planeta caliente y no apto para la vida como consecuencia
de un efecto invernadero fuera de control. Sagan y su colega de Cornell, Edwin Ernest Salpeter,
especularon sobre la posibilidad de la existencia de vida en las nubes de Jpiter, dada la
composicin de la densa atmsfera del planeta, rica en molculas orgnicas. Tambin estudi
las variaciones de color de la superficie de Marte y concluy que no se trataba de cambios
estacionales o vegetales, como muchos crean, sino desplazamientos del polvo superficial
causados por tormentas de viento.
Sin embargo, Sagan es ms conocido por sus investigaciones sobre la posibilidad de la vida
extraterrestre, incluyendo la demostracin experimental de la produccin
deaminocidos mediante radiacin y a partir de reacciones qumicas bsicas.12
En 1994, Sagan recibi la Medalla de Bienestar Pblico, la mayor condecoracin de la Academia
Nacional de Ciencias de Estados Unidos por sus destacadas contribuciones a la aplicacin de la
ciencia al bienestar pblico.13 Se dice que le fue denegado el ingreso en dicha Academia porque
su actividad en los medios le haba hecho impopular ante otros cientficos. 14

Abanderado de la Ciencia
La habilidad de Sagan para transmitir sus ideas permiti que muchas personas comprendiesen
mejor el cosmos, enfatizando simultneamente el valor de la raza humana, y la relativa
insignificancia de la Tierra respecto del universo. En Londres, imparti la edicin de 1977 de
las Royal Institution Christmas Lectures.15 Fue presentador, coautor y coproductor --junto a Ann
Druyan y Steven Soter-- de la popular serie de televisin de trece captulos Cosmos: Un viaje
personal, producida por el PBS, y que segua el formato de la tambin serie El ascenso del
hombre, presentada por Jacob Bronowski.
Sagan defendi la bsqueda de vida extraterrestre, instando a la comunidad cientfica a
utilizar radiotelescopios para buscar seales procedentes de formas de vida extraterrestres
potencialmente inteligentes. Sagan fue tan persuasivo que, en 1982, logr publicar en la
revista Science una peticin de defensa del Proyecto SETI firmada por 70 cientficos entre los
que se encontraban siete ganadores del Premio Nobel, lo que supuso un enorme espaldarazo a
la respetabilidad de un campo tan controvertido. Sagan tambin ayud al Dr. Frank Drake a
preparar el mensaje de Arecibo, una emisin de radio dirigida al espacio desde el radiotelescopio
de Arecibo el 16 de noviembre de 1974, destinada a informar sobre la existencia de la Tierra a
posibles seres extraterrestres.

Los fundadores de la Sociedad Planetaria. Carl Sagan, sentado a la derecha.

De 1968 a 1979, Sagan fue editor de la Revista Icarus, publicacin para profesionales sobre
investigacin planetaria. Fue co-fundador de la Sociedad Planetaria, el mayor grupo del mundo
dedicado a la investigacin espacial, con ms de cien mil miembros en ms de 149 pases, y fue
miembro del Consejo de Administracin del Instituto SETI. Sagan ejerci tambin de Presidente
de la Divisin de Ciencia Planetaria (DPS) de la Sociedad Astronmica Americana, de Presidente
de la Seccin de Planetologa de la American Geophysical Union, y de Presidente de la Seccin
de Astronoma de la Asociacin Estadounidense para el Avance de la Ciencia.
En el clmax de la Guerra Fra, Sagan dedic parte de sus esfuerzos a concienciar a la opinin
pblica sobre los efectos de una guerra nuclear cuando un modelo matemtico del clima sugiri
que un intercambio nuclear de proporciones suficientes podra desestabilizar el delicado
equilibrio de la vida en la Tierra. Fue uno de los cinco autores el autor "S" del
informe TTAPS, como fue conocido dicho artculo de investigacin. Finalmente, fue coautor del
artculo cientfico que planteaba la hiptesis de un invierno nuclear global tras una guerra
nuclear.16 Carl Sagan relat su implicacin en los debates polticos sobre el invierno nuclear y su
errnea prediccin del enfriamiento global que causaran los incendios de los pozos petrolferos
durante la Guerra del Golfo, en su libro, El mundo y sus demonios. Tambin fue coautor del
libro A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race ("Un camino
que ningn humano pens: el invierno nuclear y el fin de la carrera armamentista"), un anlisis
exhaustivo del fenmeno del invierno nuclear.
La serie Cosmos abarc un amplio espectro de materias cientficas que incluan el origen de la
vida y una perspectiva de nuestro lugar en el universo. Fue estrenada por el Public Broadcasting
Service en 1980, ganando un Premio Emmy y un Premio Peabody. Ha sido emitida en ms de
60 pases y vista por ms de 600 millones de personas, convirtindose en el programa
del PBS ms visto de la historia.17 Adems, la revista Time public un artculo de portada sobre
Sagan poco despus del estreno, refirindose a l como el creador, autor principal y
presentador-narrador de la nueva serie de la televisin pblica Cosmos, toma el control de su
nave de la fantasa.18

Sagan tambin escribi libros de divulgacin cientfica que reflejan y desarrollan algunos de los
temas tratados en Cosmos, entre los que destacan Los dragones del Edn: Especulaciones
sobre la evolucin de la inteligencia humana, que gan un Premio Pulitzer y se convirti en el
libro de ciencia en ingls ms vendido de todos los tiempos;19 y El cerebro de Broca: Reflexiones
sobre el romance de la ciencia. Sagan tambin escribi, en 1985, la exitosa novela de cienciaficcin Contacto, basada en un proyecto de guion que ide con su esposa en 1979, pero no
vivira para ver la adaptacin cinematogrfica de la misma, estrenada en 1997, protagonizada
por la actriz Jodie Foster, y que ganara el Premio Hugo de 1998 a la "Mejor Presentacin
Dramtica".20

Un punto azul plido: La Tierra no es ms que un pxel brillante fotografiado desde laVoyager 1, a 6.000
millones de kilmetros de distancia (ms all de Plutn). Sagan convenci a la NASA para que generase
esta imagen.

Sagan escribi un libro continuacin de Cosmos, llamado Un punto azul plido: Una visin del
futuro humano en el espacio, que fue seleccionado como libro destacado de 1995 por The New
York Times. En enero de 1995, Sagan apareci en el programa de Charlie Rose, en
el PBS.21 Tambin escribi una introduccin al exitoso libro de Stephen Hawking, Breve historia
del tiempo. Tambin fue conocido por su labor como divulgador de la Ciencia, por sus esfuerzos
para incrementar la comprensin cientfica del pblico en general, y por su posicin en favor
del escepticismo cientfico y contra las pseudociencias, como su refutacin de la abduccin de
Betty y Barney Hill. Para sealar el dcimo aniversario de la muerte de Sagan, David Morrison,
uno de sus antiguos alumnos, record las inmensas contribuciones de Sagan a la investigacin
planetaria, a la comprensin pblica de la ciencia, y al movimiento escptico en la
revista Skeptical Inquirer.22
En enero de 1991, Sagan plante la hiptesis de que una cantidad suficiente de humo
procedente de los incendios petroleros de Kuwait de ese ao podra alcanzar una altura tal que
llegase a desmantelar la actividad agrcola en el sur de Asia ... Posteriormente reconoci, en El
mundo y sus demonios, que dicha prediccin no result ser correcta: estaba oscuro como boca
de lobo a medioda y las temperaturas cayeron entre 4 y 6 C en el Golfo Prsico, pero no fue
mucho el humo que alcanz altitudes estratosfricas y Asia se salv. 23 En 2007, un estudio
aplic modelos computacionales modernos a los incendios petroleros de Kuwait, resultando que

columnas individuales de humo no son capaces de elevar ste hasta la estratosfera, pero que el
humo procedente de fuegos que abarquen una gran superficie, como algunos incendios
forestales o los incendios de ciudades enteras producto de un ataque nuclear, s que elevaran
cantidades significativas de humo a niveles estratosfricos.24 2526
En sus ltimos aos, Sagan abog por la creacin de una bsqueda organizada de objetos
cercanos a la Tierra que pudieran impactar contra sta. 27 Mientras otros expertos sugeran la
creacin de grandes bombas nucleares que pudieran usarse para alterar la rbita de
un NEO susceptible de impacto terrestre, Sagan propuso el Dilema de la Desviacin: al crear la
capacidad de alejar un asteroide de la Tierra, tambin se crea la capacidad de desviarlo hacia
sta, dotando potencialmente a un poder malfico con una autntica bomba del fin del
mundo.28 29

Miles de millones
A partir de Cosmos y de sus frecuentes apariciones en el programa The Tonight Show Starring
Johnny Carson, comenz a relacionarse a Sagan con la muletilla miles de millones y miles de
millones en ingls estadounidense, billions and billions. Sagan afirmaba que l nunca utiliz
esa frase en la serie.30 Lo ms parecido que lleg a expresar est en el libro Cosmos, donde
habla de "miles y miles de millones":31
Una galaxia se compone de gas y de polvo y de estrellas, de miles y miles de millones de estrellas.

Sin embargo, su frecuente uso de la palabra billions, enfatizando la pronunciacin de la "b" (de
forma intencionada para no recurrir a alternativas ms farragosas, como decir billions with a "b",
para que el espectador distinguiese claramente dicha palabra de millions --millones--),30 le
convirtieron en el blanco favorito de humoristas como Johnny Carson,32 Gary Kroeger, Mike
Myers, Bronson Pinchot, Penn Jillette, Harry Shearer, y otros. Frank Zappa satiriz la expresin
en su cancin Be In My Video, junto con el trmino "luz atmica" --atomic light--. Sagan se tom
todo esto de buen humor hasta tal punto que su ltimo libro se titul Miles de millones,
inicindolo con un anlisis burlesco de la famosa expresin, sealando que el propio Carson era
un aficionado a la astronoma y que sus nmeros a menudo incluan elementos de ciencia real. 30
Sus habituales descripciones de enormes cantidades a escala csmica inculcaron en la
percepcin popular la maravilla de la inmensidad del espacio y el tiempo como, por ejemplo, su
frase El nmero total de estrellas en el Universo es mayor que el de todos los granos de arena
de todas las playas del planeta Tierra. Como homenaje humorstico, se ha definido
un sagan como una unidad de medida equivalente, al menos, a cuatro mil millones, puesto que
el nmero ms pequeo que puede ser descrito como miles de millones y miles de millones es
dos mil millones ms dos mil millones.33 34

Activismo social
Sagan crea que la ecuacin de Drake, a falta de estimaciones ms razonables, sugiere la
formacin de un gran nmero de civilizaciones extraterrestres, pero la falta de evidencia de la
existencia de las mismas, resaltada por la paradoja de Fermi, indicara la tendencia de las
civilizaciones tecnolgicas hacia la autodestruccin. Esto dio pie a su inters en identificar y dar
a conocer las diversas maneras en que la humanidad podra destruirse a si misma, con la
esperanza de poder evitar dicha catstrofe y, finalmente, posibilitar que los seres humanos se
conviertan en una especie capaz de viajar por el espacio. La profunda preocupacin de Sagan
acerca de una potencial destruccin de la civilizacin humana en un holocausto nuclear qued
plasmada en una memorable secuencia en el ltimo episodio de la serie Cosmos,
titulado Quin habla en nombre de la Tierra?. Sagan acababa de dimitir de su puesto en el
Consejo Cientfico Asesor de las Fuerzas Areas Estadounidenses y de rechazar
voluntariamente su autorizacin de acceso a asuntos de alto secreto en protesta por la Guerra
de Vietnam.35 Tras su matrimonio con la que sera su tercera esposa, la escritora Ann Druyan, en
junio de 1981, Sagan increment su actividad poltica, concretamente en su oposicin a la
carrera armamentstica nuclear, durante la presidencia de Ronald Reagan.
En marzo de 1983, Reagan dio a conocer la llamada Iniciativa de Defensa Estratgica, un
proyecto en el que se invirtieron miles de millones de dlares para desarrollar un completo
sistema de defensa contra ataques con misiles nucleares, que fue popularmente conocido
como Programa Guerra de las Galaxias. Sagan se opuso al proyecto, argumentando que era
tcnicamente imposible desarrollar un sistema semejante con el nivel de perfeccin requerido, y
que sera mucho ms caro elaborarlo que para un enemigo el eludirlo mediante seuelos u otros
medios, y que su construccin desestabilizara seriamente la balanza nuclear entre los Estados
Unidos y la Unin Sovitica, tornando imposible cualquier progreso hacia el desarme nuclear.
Cuando el lder sovitico Mikhail Gorbachov declar una moratoria unilateral sobre las pruebas
de armamento nuclear, que comenzara el 6 de agosto de 1985, en el 40 aniversario de
los bombardeos atmicos sobre Hiroshima y Nagasaki, el gobierno de Reagan desestim la
dramtica iniciativa tachndola de propaganda, y rechaz seguir el ejemplo sovitico. En
respuesta, activistas anti-nucleares y pacifistas estadounidenses llevaron a cabo una serie de
protestas en el emplazamiento de pruebas de Nevada, que se iniciaran el domingo de Pascua
de 1986 y continuaran hasta 1987. Cientos de personas fueron arrestadas, incluyendo a Sagan,
quien fue detenido en dos ocasiones al tratar de saltar un cordn de seguridad. 5

Vida privada, ideas y creencias

Ciencia y religin
El escritor Isaac Asimov describi a Sagan como una de las dos nicas personas que haba
conocido cuyo intelecto superaba al suyo, siendo la otra el informtico y experto en inteligencia
artificial, Marvin Minsky.36

Sagan escriba a menudo sobre la religin y sobre la relacin entre sta y la ciencia, expresando
su escepticismo sobre la convencional conceptualizacin de Dios como ser sapiente:
Alguna gente piensa en Dios imaginndose un hombre anciano, de grandes dimensiones, con una larga
barba blanca, sentado en un trono en algn lugar ah arriba en el cielo, llevando afanosamente la cuenta
de la muerte de cada gorrin. Otros por ejemplo, Baruch Spinoza y Albert Einstein consideraban que
Dios es bsicamente la suma total de las leyes fsicas que describen al universo. No s de ningn indicio
de peso en favor de algn patriarca capaz de controlar el destino humano desde algn lugar privilegiado
oculto en el cielo, pero sera estpido negar la existencia de las leyes fsicas. 37

En otra descripcin de su punto de vista sobre Dios, Sagan afirma rotundamente:

La idea de que Dios es un hombre blanco de grandes dimensiones y de larga barba blanca, sentado en el
cielo y que lleva la cuenta de la muerte de cada gorrin es ridcula. Pero si por Dios uno entiende el
conjunto de leyes fsicas que gobiernan el universo, entonces est claro que dicho Dios existe. Este Dios
es emocionalmente insatisfactorio... no tiene mucho sentido rezarle a la ley de la gravedad. 38

En el libro El mundo y sus demonios (1995), Sagan ejemplifica la falacia del argumento
especial con ejemplos exclusivamente religiosos:

un argumento especial, a menudo para salvar una proposicin en un problema retrico

profundo (p. ej.: Cmo puede un Dios compasivo condenar al tormento a las
generaciones futuras porque, contra sus rdenes, una mujer indujo a un hombre a comerse
una manzana? Argumento especial: no entiendes la sutil doctrina del libre albedro. O:
Cmo puede haber un Padre, Hijo y Espritu Santo igualmente divinos en la misma
persona? Argumento especial: no entiendes el misterio divino de la Santsima Trinidad. O:
Cmo poda permitir Dios que los seguidores del judasmo, cristianismo e islam
obligados cada uno a su modo a medidas heroicas de amabilidad afectuosa y compasin
perpetraran tanta crueldad durante tanto tiempo? Argumento especial: otra vez no
entiendes el libre albedro. Y, en todo caso, los caminos de Dios son misteriosos); 39

En 1996, en respuesta a una pregunta acerca de sus creencias religiosas, Sagan contest: Soy
agnstico.40 El punto de vista de Sagan sobre la religin ha sido interpretado como una forma
de pantesmo comparable a la creencia de Einstein en el Dios de Spinoza.41 Sagan sostena que
la idea de un creador del universo era difcil de probar o refutar, y que el nico descubrimiento
cientfico que podra desafiarla sera el de un universo infinitamente viejo. 42 Segn su ltima
esposa, Ann Druyan, Sagan no era creyente:
Cuando mi esposo muri, debido a que era tan famoso y conocido por ser un no creyente, muchas
personas se me acercaban an sucede a veces a preguntarme si Carl cambi al final y se convirti en
un creyente en la otra vida. Tambin me preguntan con frecuencia si creo que le volver a ver. Carl se
enfrent a su muerte con infatigable valor y jams busc refugio en ilusiones. Lo trgico fue saber que
jams nos volveramos a ver. No espero volver a reunirme con Carl. 43

En 2006, Ann Druyan edit las Conferencias Gifford sobre Teologa Natural, impartidas por
Sagan en Glasgow, en el ao 1985, incluyndolas en un libro llamado La diversidad de la
ciencia: una visin personal de la bsqueda de Dios, en el que el astrnomo expone su punto de
vista sobre la divinidad en el mundo natural.

Librepensador y escptico
Sagan tambin est considerado como librepensador y escptico; una de sus frases ms
famosas, de la serie Cosmos, es: Afirmaciones extraordinarias requieren evidencias
extraordinarias.44 Dicha frase est basada en otra casi idntica de su colega fundador del Comit

para la Investigacin Escptica, Marcello Truzzi: Una afirmacin extraordinaria requiere una
prueba extraordinaria.45 Esta idea tuvo su origen en Pierre-Simon Laplace (17491827),
matemtico y astrnomo francs, quien dijo que el peso de la evidencia de una afirmacin
extraordinaria debe ser proporcional a su rareza.
A lo largo de su vida, los libros de Sagan fueron desarrollados sobre su visin del mundo,
naturalista y escptica. En El mundo y sus demonios, Sagan present herramientas para probar
argumentos y detectar falacias y fraudes, abogando esencialmente por el uso extensivo del
pensamiento crtico y del mtodo cientfico. La recopilacin Miles de millones, publicada en 1997
tras la muerte de Sagan, contiene ensayos, como su visin sobre el aborto, y el relato de su
viuda, Ann Druyan, sobre su muerte como escptico, agnstico y librepensador.
Sagan advirti contra la tendencia humana hacia el antropocentrismo. Fue asesor de los
Alumnos de Cornell por el Trato tico hacia los Animales. Hacia el final del captuloBlues para un
planeta rojo, del libro Cosmos, Sagan escribi: Si hay vida en Marte creo que no deberamos
hacer nada con el planeta. Marte pertenecera entonces a los marcianos, aunque los marcianos
fuesen slo microbios.[cita requerida]

El fenmeno ovni
Sagan mostr inters en los informes sobre el fenmeno ovni al menos desde el 3 de agosto de
1952, cuando escribi una carta al Secretario de Estado estadounidense Dean
Acheson preguntndole cmo responderan los EE. UU. si los platillos volantes resultaran ser de
origen extraterrestre.46 Posteriormente, en 1964, mantuvo varias conversaciones sobre el asunto
con Jacques Valle.47 A pesar de su escepticismo acerca de la obtencin de cualquier respuesta
extraordinaria a la cuestin ovni, Sagan crea que los cientficos deban estudiar el fenmeno,
aunque slo fuese por el gran inters que el asunto despertaba en el pblico.
Stuart Appelle comenta que Sagan escribi frecuentemente sobre lo que l perciba como
falacias lgicas y empricas acerca de los ovnis y las experiencias de abduccin. Sagan
rechazaba la explicacin extraterrestre del fenmeno pero tena la sensacin de que examinar
los informes ovni tendra beneficios empricos y pedaggicos, y que el asunto sera, por tanto,
una materia de estudio legtima.48
En 1966, Sagan fue miembro del Comit Ad Hoc para la Revisin del Proyecto Libro Azul,
promovido por la Fuerza Area de los EE. UU. para investigar el fenmeno ovni. El comit
concluy que el Libro Azul dejaba que desear como estudio cientfico, y recomend la realizacin
de un proyecto de corte universitario para someter el fenmeno a un escrutinio ms cientfico. El
resultado fue la formacin del Comit Condon (1966-1968), liderado por el fsico Edward
Condon, y que, en su informe final, dictamin formalmente que los ovnis, con independencia de
su origen y significado, no se comportaban de manera consistente para representar una
amenaza a la seguridad nacional.

Ron Westrum escribe: El punto culminante del tratamiento que Sagan dio a la cuestin ovni fue
el simposio de la AAAS de 1969. Los participantes expusieron un amplio abanico de opiniones
formadas en el tema, incluyendo no slo a partidarios como James McDonald y J. Allen
Hynek sino tambin a escpticos como los astrnomos William Hartmann y Donald Menzel. La
lista de ponentes estaba equilibrada, y es mrito de Sagan el que dicho evento tuviera lugar a
pesar de la presin ejercida por Edward Condon.47 Junto al fsico Thornton Page, Sagan edit
las conferencias y debates presentados en el simposio; stos se publicaron en 1972 bajo el
ttulo UFOs: A Scientific Debate. En algunos de los numerosos libros de Sagan se examina la
cuestin ovni (al igual que en uno de los episodios de Cosmos) y se afirma la existencia de un
trasfondo religioso al fenmeno.
En 1980, Sagan volvi a revelar su punto de vista sobre los viajes interestelares en la
serie Cosmos. En una de sus ltimas obras escritas, Sagan expuso que la probabilidad de que
naves espaciales extraterrestres visitasen la Tierra era muy pequea. Sin embargo, Sagan crea
que era plausible que la preocupacin causada por la Guerra Fracontribuyese a que los
gobiernos desorientasen a los ciudadanos acerca de los ovni, y que algunos de los anlisis e
informes sobre ovnis, y quiz archivos voluminosos, hayan sido declarados inaccesibles al
pblico que paga las impuestos... Es hora de que esos archivos sean desclasificados y puestos
a disposicin de todos. Tambin previno acerca de sacar conclusiones sobre datos eliminados
sobre los ovnis e insisti en que no existan claras evidencias de que posibles aliengenas
hubieran visitado la Tierra ni en el pasado ni en el presente.49

2001: Una odisea del espacio

Sagan ejerci brevemente de asesor en la pelcula 2001: Una odisea del espacio, dirigida
por Stanley Kubrick.4 Sagan propuso que la pelcula sugiriese, sin mostrar, la existencia de una
superinteligencia extraterrestre.50

Enfermedad y fallecimiento
Dos aos despus de diagnosticrsele una mielodisplasia, y despus de someterse a
tres trasplantes de mdula seaprocedente de su hermana, el Dr. Carl Sagan falleci
de neumona a los 62 aos de edad en el Centro de Investigacin del Cncer Fred
Hutchinson de Seattle, Washington, el 20 de diciembre de 1996.62 63 Fue enterrado en el
Cementerio Lakeview,Ithaca, Nueva York.64

Reconocimientos y premios
Sagan fue el autor de la introduccin al libro divulgativo Historia del Tiempo, del fsico
britnico Stephen Hawking, en su primera edicin en lengua inglesa (1988). Dicha introduccin
fue sustituida en posteriores ediciones debido a que Sagan era el propietario de los derechos de
copia.

La pelcula Contacto, de 1997, basada en la novela homnima de Sagan y acabada tras la

muerte de ste, finaliza con la dedicatoria Para Carl.
Tambin en 1997 se inaugur en Ithaca, Nueva York, el Sagan Planet Walk, una recreacin del
sistema solar a escala de a pie, con una extensin de 1,2 km, desde el centro de la zona
peatonal (llamada The Commons) hasta el Sciencenter, un museo de la ciencia participativo, del
que Sagan fue miembro fundador de la junta de asesores. 65
El lugar de aterrizaje de la nave no tripulada Mars Pathfinder fue rebautizado como Carl Sagan
Memorial Station el 5 de julio de 1997. Adems, el asteroide 2709 Sagan lleva dicho nombre en
honor del cientfico.
Nick Sagan, hijo de Carl, es autor de varios episodios de la franquicia Star Trek. El episodio de la
serie Star Trek: Enterprise titulado Terra Prime, muestra una breve imagen de los restos del robot
explorador Sojourner, que form parte de la misin Mars Pathfinder, situados junto a un
monumento conmemorativo en la Carl Sagan Memorial Station, sobre la superficie marciana. El
monumento muestra una frase de Sagan: Sea cual sea la razn por la que esteis en Marte,
estoy encantado de que esteis aqu, y yo deseara estar con vosotros. Steve Squyres, alumno de
Sagan, dirigi el equipo que deposit con xito el Spirit Rover y el Opportunity Rover sobre Marte
en 2004.
El 9 de noviembre de 2001, en el 67 aniversario del nacimiento de Sagan, el Ames Research
Center de la NASA dedic al cientfico el emplazamiento del Centro Carl Sagan para el Estudio
de la Vida en el Cosmos. El responsable de la NASA, Daniel Goldin dijo: Carl fue un visionario
increble, y ahora su legado podr ser preservado y ampliado por un laboratorio de investigacin
y formacin del siglo XXI dedicado a mejorar nuestra comprensin de la vida en el universo y a
enarbolar la causa de la exploracin espacial por siempre jams. Ann Druyan estuvo en la
apertura de puertas del Centro, el 22 de octubre de 2006.
Existen, al menos, tres premios que llevan el nombre de Sagan en honor a ste:

El Premio Carl Sagan para la Comprensin Pblica de la Ciencia otorgado por el Consejo
de Presidentes de la Sociedad Cientfica (CSSP). Sagan fue el primer galardonado en
1993.66

El Premio Conmemorativo Carl Sagan, otorgado en conjunto desde 1997 por la Sociedad
Astronutica Americana y la Sociedad Planetaria.

La Medalla Carl Sagan a la Excelencia en la Divulgacin de la Ciencia Planetaria,

otorgada desde 1998 por la Divisin de Ciencias Planetarias (DPS) de la Sociedad
Astronmica Americana, a los cientficos planetarios en activo que hayan realizado algn
trabajo destacado de divulgacin. Sagan fue uno de los miembros del comit organizador
original de la DPS.

Desde 2009, por inicitiava del Center for Inquiry, varias organizaciones en pro del humanismo
secular y la investigacin cientfica promueven la celebracin del Da de Carl Sagan el 9 de
noviembre de cada ao.
Carl Sagan ha recibido diversos premios, condecoraciones y honores entre los que destacan:

Beca Miller de Investigacin (1960-1962) del Instituto Miller.

Premio del Programa Apolo concedido por la NASA.

Premio Klumpke-Roberts (1974) de la Sociedad Astronmica del Pacfico.

Premio John W. Campbell Memorial Especial no ficcin (1974) por La conexin

csmica.71

Medalla de la NASA al Servicio Pblico Distinguido (1977).

Medalla de la NASA al Logro Cientfico Excepcional.

Premio Pulitzer (1978) en la categora de obra no ficcional general al ensayo Los

dragones del Edn.

Premio Lowell Thomas del Club de Exploradores en el 75 Aniversario.

Premio Peabody (1980) a la serie Cosmos.

Premio Emmy (1981), en la categora de Logro Destacado Individual, por la

serie Cosmos: un viaje personal.

Premio Primetime Emmy (1981), en la categora de Serie Documental Destacada, por la

serie Cosmos: un viaje personal.

Premio Anual a la Excelencia Televisiva (1981) concedido por la Universidad Estatal de

Ohio a la serie Cosmos: un viaje personal.

Premio Hugo por el "Mejor Relato No Ficcional" (1981) al libro Cosmos.72

Humanista del Ao (1981) de la Asociacin Humanista Americana.

Premio John F. Kennedy de Astronutica (1982) de la Sociedad Astronutica

Americana.73

Premio Joseph Priestley "Por destacadas contribuciones al bienestar de la

humanidad".

Medalla Konstantn Tsiolkovski otorgada por la Federacin Sovitica de Cosmonautas.

Premio Locus (1986) a la novela Contacto.

Premio Elogio de la Razn (1987) del Comit para la Investigacin Cientfica de las
Afirmaciones de lo Paranormal

Premio Masursky de la Sociedad Astronmica Americana.

Medalla Oersted (1990) de la Asociacin Americana de Profesores de Fsica.

Premio Galbert de Astronutica.

Premio Helen Caldicott al Liderazgo otorgado por la Accin Femenina por el Desarme
Nuclear.[cita requerida]

Medalla de Bienestar Pblico (1994) de la Academia Nacional de Ciencias74

Premio Isaac Asimov (1994) del Comit para la Investigacin Cientfica de las
Afirmaciones de lo Paranormal.

Premio San Francisco Chronicle (1998) por Contact.[cita requerida]

Carl Edward Sagan (/sen/; 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 wrote many popular science books, such as The Dragons of
Eden, Broca's Brain and Pale Blue Dot, and narrated and co-wrote the award-winning 1980
television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. 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.[2] 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.

Early life[edit]
Carl Sagan was born in Brooklyn, New York.[3] His father, Samuel Sagan, was an immigrant
garment worker from Kamianets-Podilskyi, then Russian Empire,[4][5] in today's Ukraine. His
mother, Rachel Molly Gruber, was a housewife from New York. Carl was named in honor of
Rachel's biological mother, Chaiya Clara, in Sagan's words, "the mother she never knew."[6]
He had a sister, Carol, and the family lived in a modest apartment near the Atlantic Ocean,
in Bensonhurst, a Brooklyn neighborhood. According to Sagan, they were Reform Jews, the most
liberal of North American Judaism's four main groups. Both Sagan and his sister agreed that their
father was not especially religious, but that their mother "definitely believed in God, and was
active in the temple ... and served only kosher meat."[6]:12 During the depths of the Depression, his
father worked as a theater usher.
According to biographer Keay Davidson, Sagan's "inner war" was a result of his close relationship
with both of his parents, who were in many ways "opposites." Sagan traced his later analytical
urges to his mother, a woman who had been extremely poor as a child in New York City
during World War I and the 1920s.[6]:2 As a young woman she had held her own intellectual
ambitions, but they were frustrated by social restrictions: her poverty, her status as a woman and
a wife, and her Jewish ethnicity. Davidson notes that she therefore "worshipped her only son,
Carl. He would fulfill her unfulfilled dreams."[6]:2
However, he claimed that his sense of wonder came from his father. In his free time he gave
apples to the poor or helped soothe labor-management tensions within New York's garment
industry.[6]:2 Although he was awed by Carl's intellectual abilities, he took his son's inquisitiveness
in stride and saw it as part of his growing up.[6]:2 In his later years as a writer and scientist, Sagan
would often draw on his childhood memories to illustrate scientific points, as he did in his
book, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors.[6]:9 Sagan describes his parents' influence on his later
thinking:

My parents were not scientists. They knew almost nothing about science. But in
introducing me simultaneously to skepticism and to wonder, they taught me the two
uneasily cohabiting modes of thought that are central to the scientific method. [7]

Inquisitiveness about nature[edit]

Soon after entering elementary school he began to express a strong inquisitiveness about nature.
Sagan recalled taking his first trips to the public library alone, at the age of five, when his mother
got him a library card. He wanted to learn what stars were, since none of his friends or their
parents could give him a clear answer:
I went to the librarian and asked for a book about stars ... And the answer was stunning. It was
that the Sun was a star but really close. The stars were suns, but so far away they were just little
points of light ... The scale of the universe suddenly opened up to me. It was a kind of religious
experience. There was a magnificence to it, a grandeur, a scale which has never left me. Never
ever left me.[6]:18
At about age six or seven, he and a close friend took trips to the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City. While there, they went to the Hayden Planetarium and
walked around the museum's exhibits of space objects, such as meteorites, and displays of
dinosaurs and animals in natural settings. Sagan writes about those visits:
I was transfixed by the dioramaslifelike representations of animals and their habitats all over
the world. Penguins on the dimly lit Antarctic ice; ...a family of gorillas, the male beating his
chest, ...an American grizzly bear standing on his hind legs, ten or twelve feet tall, and staring me
right in the eye.[6]:18
His parents helped nurture his growing interest in science by buying him chemistry sets
and reading materials. His interest in space, however, was his primary focus, especially
after reading science fiction stories by writers such as H. G. Wells and Edgar Rice
Burroughs, which stirred his imagination about life on other planets such as Mars.
According to biographer Ray Spangenburg, these early years as Sagan tried to
understand the mysteries of the planets became a "driving force in his life, a continual
spark to his intellect, and a quest that would never be forgotten." [7]
In 1947 he discovered Astounding Science Fiction magazine, which introduced him to
more hard science fiction speculations than those in Burroughs's novels. That same year
inaugurated the "flying saucer" mass hysteria with the young Carl suspecting the "discs"
might be alien spaceships.[8]

High school years[edit]

Sagan had lived in Bensonhurst where he went to David A. Boody Junior High School.
He had his bar mitzvah in Bensonhurst when he turned 13.[6]:23 The following year, 1948,
his family moved to the nearby town of Rahway, New Jersey for his father's work, where

Sagan then entered Rahway High School. He graduated in 1951.[6]:23 Rahway was an
older industrial town, and the Sagans were among its few Jewish families. Today the
town is best known as the site of a state prison.[6]:23
Sagan was a straight-A student but was bored due to unchallenging classes and
uninspiring teachers.[6]:23 His teachers realized this and tried to convince his parents to
send him to a private school, the administrator telling them, "This kid ought to go to a
school for gifted children, he has something really remarkable." [6]:24 This they couldn't do,
partly because of the cost.
Sagan was made president of the school's chemistry club, and at home he set up his
own laboratory. He taught himself about molecules by making cardboard cutouts to help
him visualize how molecules were formed: "I found that about as interesting as doing
[chemical] experiments," he said.[6]:24 Sagan remained mostly interested in astronomy as a
hobby, and in his junior year made it a career goal after he learned that astronomers
were paid for doing what he always enjoyed: "That was a splendid daywhen I began to
suspect that if I tried hard I could do astronomy full-time, not just part-time." [6]:25

Education and scientific career[edit]

He attended the University of Chicago, where he participated in the Ryerson
Astronomical Society,[9] received a B.A. degree in self-proclaimed "nothing" with general
and special honors in 1954, a B.S. degree in physics in 1955, and an M.S. degree
in physics in 1956, before earning a Ph.D. degree in 1960 with the dissertation "Physical
Studies of Planets" submitted to the Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics. [10][11][12]
[13]

The title of Sagan's thesis reflects his shared interests with Gerard Kuiper,

his dissertation director, who throughout the 1950s had been president of
the International Astronomical Union's commission on "Physical Studies of Planets and
Satellites".[14]
During his time as an honors program undergraduate, Sagan worked in the laboratory of
the geneticist H. J. Muller and wrote a thesis on the origins of life with physical chemistH.
C. Urey. He used the summer months of his graduate studies to work with planetary
scientist Gerard Kuiper, physicist George Gamow, and chemist Melvin Calvin. From 1960
to 1962 Sagan was a Miller Fellow at the University of California, Berkeley.[15] From 1962
to 1968, he worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge,
Massachusetts. At the same time, he worked with geneticist Joshua Lederberg.
Sagan lectured and did research at Harvard University until 1968, when he moved to
Cornell University in Ithaca, New York, after being denied tenure at Harvard. It has been
suggested that Sagan was denied tenure in part because of his publicized scientific
advocacy, which some scientists perceived as being self-promotion;[16] Harold Urey wrote
a letter to the tenure committee recommending against tenure for Sagan. [8] He became

a full professor at Cornell in 1971, and directed the Laboratory for Planetary
Studies there. From 1972 to 1981, Sagan was associate director of the Center for
Radiophysics and Space Research (CRSR) at Cornell.
Sagan was associated with the U.S. space program from its inception. From the 1950s
onward, he worked as an advisor to NASA, where one of his duties included briefing
theApollo astronauts before their flights to the Moon. Sagan contributed to many of
the robotic spacecraft missions that explored the Solar System, arranging experiments
on many of the expeditions. He conceived the idea of adding an unalterable and
universal message on spacecraft destined to leave the Solar System that could
potentially be understood by any extraterrestrial intelligence that might find it. Sagan
assembled the first physical message that was sent into space: a gold-anodized plaque,
attached to the space probePioneer 10, launched in 1972. Pioneer 11, also carrying
another copy of the plaque, was launched the following year. He continued to refine his
designs; the most elaborate message he helped to develop and assemble was
the Voyager Golden Record that was sent out with the Voyager space probes in 1977.
Sagan often challenged the decisions to fund the Space Shuttle and the International
Space Station at the expense of further robotic missions.[17]
Sagan taught a course on critical thinking at Cornell University until he died in 1996 from
pneumonia, a few months after finding that he was in remission of myelodysplastic
syndrome.

Scientific achievements[edit]
Former student David Morrison describes Sagan as "an 'idea person' and a master of
intuitive physical arguments and 'back of the envelope' calculations,"[16] and Gerard
Kuiper said that "Some persons work best in specializing on a major program in the
laboratory; others are best in liaison between sciences. Dr. Sagan belongs in the latter
group."[16]
Sagan's contributions were central to the discovery of the high surface temperatures of
the planet Venus.[citation needed] In the early 1960s no one knew for certain the basic conditions
of that planet's surface, and Sagan listed the possibilities in a report later depicted for
popularization in a TimeLife book, Planets. His own view was that Venus was dry and
very hot as opposed to the balmy paradise others had imagined. He had investigated
radio emissions from Venus and concluded that there was a surface temperature of
500 C (900 F). As a visiting scientist to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he
contributed to the first Mariner missions to Venus, working on the design and
management of the project. Mariner 2 confirmed his conclusions on the surface
conditions of Venus in 1962.

Sagan was among[clarification needed] the first to hypothesize that Saturn's moon Titan might
possess oceans of liquid compounds on its surface and that Jupiter's moon Europamight
possess subsurface oceans of water. This would make Europa potentially habitable.
[18]

Europa's subsurface ocean of water was later indirectly confirmed by the

spacecraftGalileo. The mystery of Titan's reddish haze was also solved with Sagan's
help. The reddish haze was revealed to be due to complex organic molecules constantly
raining down onto Titan's surface.[19]
He further contributed insights regarding the atmospheres of Venus and Jupiter as well
as seasonal changes on Mars. He also perceived global warming as a growing, manmade danger and likened it to the natural development of Venus into a hot, life-hostile
planet through a kind of runaway greenhouse effect.[20] Sagan and his Cornell
colleagueEdwin Ernest Salpeter speculated about life in Jupiter's clouds, given the
planet's dense atmospheric composition rich in organic molecules. He studied the
observed color variations on Mars' surface and concluded that they were not seasonal or
vegetational changes as most believed[clarification needed] but shifts in surface dust caused
by windstorms.
Sagan is best known, however, for his research on the possibilities of extraterrestrial life,
including experimental demonstration of the production of amino acids from basic
chemicals by radiation.[21][22]
He is also the 1994 recipient of the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of
the National Academy of Sciences for "distinguished contributions in the application of
science to the public welfare".[23] He was denied membership in the Academy, reportedly
because his media activities made him unpopular with many other scientists. [24][25][26]

Scientific and critical thinking advocacy[edit]

Sagan's ability to convey his ideas allowed many people to understand the cosmos better
simultaneously emphasizing the value and worthiness of the human race, and the
relative insignificance of the Earth in comparison to the Universe. He delivered the 1977
series of Royal Institution Christmas Lectures in London.[27] He hosted and, with Ann
Druyan, co-wrote and co-produced the highly popular thirteen-part Public Broadcasting
Service (PBS) television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.[28]
Cosmos covered a wide range of scientific subjects including the origin of life and a
perspective of our place in the Universe. The series was first broadcast by PBS in 1980,
winning an Emmy[29] and a Peabody Award. It has been broadcast in more than 60
countries and seen by over 500 million people, [2][30] making it the most widely watched
PBS program in history.[31] In addition, Time magazine ran a cover story about Sagan

soon after the show broadcast, referring to him as "creator, chief writer and host-narrator
of the new public television series Cosmos, [and] takes the controls of his fantasy
spaceship".[32] However, Sagan was criticized for putting too much attention into the
series, with several of his classes at Cornell being cancelled and complaints from his
colleagues.[16]
Sagan was a proponent of the search for extraterrestrial life. He urged the scientific
community to listen with radio telescopes for signals from potential
intelligent extraterrestrial life-forms. Sagan was so persuasive that by 1982 he was able
to get a petition advocating SETI published in the journal Science and signed by 70
scientists, including seven Nobel Prize winners. This was a tremendous increase in the
respectability of this controversial field. Sagan also helped Frank Drake write the Arecibo
message, a radio message beamed into space from the Arecibo radio telescope on
November 16, 1974, aimed at informing potential extraterrestrials about Earth.
Sagan was chief technology officer of the professional planetary research
journal Icarus for twelve years. He co-founded The Planetary Society, the largest spaceinterest group in the world, with over 100,000 members in more than 149 countries, and
was a member of theSETI Institute Board of Trustees. Sagan served as Chairman of the
Division for Planetary Science of the American Astronomical Society, as President of the
Planetology Section of the American Geophysical Union, and as Chairman of the
Astronomy Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
At the height of the Cold War, Sagan became involved in public awareness efforts for the
effects ofnuclear war when a 1982 mathematical climate model, titled "Twilight at
Noon" suggested that a substantial nuclear exchange could trigger a nuclear twilight and
upset the delicate balance of life on Earth by cooling the surface. In 1983 he was one of
five authorsthe "S"in the follow-up "TTAPS" report, as the research paper came to be
known, which contained the term "nuclear winter" for the first time, a term coined by his
colleague Richard P. Turco.[33][34] In 1984 he co-authored the book The Cold and the Dark:
The World after Nuclear War and in 1990 he co-authored the book A Path Where No
Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race, which explains the nuclear
winter hypothesis and with that advocates nuclear disarmament.
Sagan also wrote books to popularize science, such as Cosmos, which reflected and
expanded upon some of the themes of A Personal Voyage and became the best-selling
science book ever published in English;[35] The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the
Evolution of Human Intelligence, which won a Pulitzer Prize; and Broca's Brain:
Reflections on the Romance of Science. Sagan also wrote the best-selling science fiction
novel Contact in 1985, based on a film treatment he wrote with his wife in 1979, but he
did not live to see the book's 1997 motion picture adaptation, which starred Jodie
Foster and won the 1998 Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation.

from Pale Blue Dot (1994)

"On it, everyone you ever heard of...The aggregate of all our joys and sufferings, thousands of confident
religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every
creator and destroyer of civilizations, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every hopeful
child, every mother and father, every 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. . . .

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."
Carl Sagan, Cornell lecture in 1994[36]

He wrote a sequel to Cosmos, Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,
which was selected as a notable book of 1995 by The New York Times. He appeared on
PBS' Charlie Rose program in January 1995.[17] Sagan also wrote the introduction
for Stephen Hawking's bestseller, A Brief History of Time. Sagan was also known for his
popularization of science, his efforts to increase scientific understanding among the
general public, and his positions in favor of scientific skepticism and
againstpseudoscience, such as his debunking of the Betty and Barney Hill abduction. To
mark the tenth anniversary of Sagan's death, David Morrison, a former student of
Sagan's, recalled "Sagan's immense contributions to planetary research, the public
understanding of science, and the skeptical movement" in Skeptical Inquirer.[16]
Following Saddam Hussein's threats to light Kuwait's oil wells on fire in response to any
physical challenge to Iraqi control of the oil assets, Sagan and his "TTAPS" colleagues
warned in January 1991 in the Baltimore Sun and Wilmington Morning Starnewspapers
that if the fires were left to burn over a period of several months, enough smoke from the
600 or so 1991 Kuwaiti oil fires "might get so high as to disrupt agriculture in much of
South Asia ..." and that this possibility should "affect the war plans";[37][38] these claims
were also the subject of a televised debate between Sagan and physicist Fred Singer on
22 January, aired on the ABC News program Nightline.[39][40]
In the televised debate, Sagan argued that the effects of the smoke would be similar to
the effects of a nuclear winter, with Singer arguing to the contrary. After the debate, the
fires burnt for many months before extinguishing efforts were complete, the results of the
smoke did not produce continental-sized cooling. Sagan later conceded in The DemonHaunted World that the prediction did not turn out to be correct: "it waspitch black at noon
and temperatures dropped 46 C over the Persian Gulf, but not much smoke reached
stratospheric altitudes and Asia was spared".[41]
In his later years Sagan advocated the creation of an organized search for
asteroids/near-Earth objects (NEO) that might impact the Earth, and to postpone

developing the technology to defend against them. [42] He argued that the nuclear
detonation, along with the other methods of deflection proposed as a means to alter the
orbit of an asteroid, created a Deflection Dilemma: if the ability to deflect an asteroid
away from the Earth exists, then one would also have the ability to deflect a close
approaching asteroid towards Earth, creating an immensely destructive weapon. [43][44] In a
1994 paper, he co-authored, he ridiculed a 3-day long "Near-Earth Object Interception
Workshop" held byLANL in 1993 that did not, "even in passing" state that such
interception and deflection technologies could have these "ancillary dangers". [45]
Sagan however was hopeful that the natural impact threat and the intrinsically double
edged essence of the methods to prevent these threats, would serve as a "new and
potent motivation to maturing international relations".[46][47] Later acknowledging that, with
sufficient international oversight, in the future a "work our way up" approach to fielding
nuclear explosive deflection methods could be fielded, and when sufficient knowledge
was gained, to use them to aid in mining asteroids.[44] His interest in the use of nuclear
detonations in space grew out of his work in 1958 for the Armour Research
Foundation's Project A119, concerning the possibility of detonating a nuclear device on
the Lunar surface.[48]
Sagan was a critic of Plato. Sagan said of Plato: "Science and mathematics were to be
removed from the hands of the merchants and the artisans. This tendency found its most
effective advocate in a follower of Pythagoras named Plato" and "He (Plato) believed that
ideas were far more real than the natural world. He advised the astronomers not to waste
their time observing the stars and planets. It was better, he believed, just to think about
them. Plato expressed hostility to observation and experiment. He taught contempt for
the real world and disdain for the practical application of scientific knowledge. Plato's
followers succeeded in extinguishing the light of science and experiment that had been
kindled by Democritus and the other Ionians."[49]

Popularizing science[edit]
Speaking about his activities in popularizing science, Sagan said that there were at least
two reasons for scientists to explain what science is about. Naked self-interest was one
because much of the funding for science came from the public, and the public had a right
to know how their money was being spent. If scientists increased public excitement about
science, there was a good chance of having more public supporters. The other reason
was the excitement of communicating one's own excitement about science to others. [50]

"Billions and billions"[edit]

From Cosmos and his frequent appearances on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny
Carson, Sagan became associated with thecatchphrase "billions and billions". Sagan

said that he never actually used the phrase in the Cosmos series.[51] The closest that he
ever came was in the book Cosmos, where he talked of "billions upon billions":[52]
A galaxy is composed of gas and dust and starsbillions upon billions of stars. [20]
(Richard Feynman, a precursor to Sagan, is observed to use the phrase "billions and
billions" many times in his "red books".) However, Sagan's frequent use of the
word billions, and distinctive delivery emphasizing the "b" (which he did intentionally, in
place of more cumbersome alternatives such as "billions with a 'b'", in order to distinguish
the word from "millions"),[51] made him a favorite target of comic performers,
including Johnny Carson,[53] Gary Kroeger, Mike Myers, Bronson Pinchot, Penn
Jillette, Harry Shearer, and others.Frank Zappa satirized the line in the song "Be in My
Video", noting as well "atomic light". Sagan took this all in good humor, and his final book
was entitled Billions and Billions, which opened with a tongue-in-cheek discussion of this
catchphrase, observing that Carson was an amateur astronomer and that Carson's comic
caricature often included real science.[51]
He is also known for expressing wonderment at the vastness of space and time, as in his
phrase "The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on
all the beaches of the planet Earth."
As a humorous tribute to Sagan and his association with the catchphrase "billions and
billions", a sagan has been defined as a unit of measurement equivalent to a very large
number of anything.[54][55][56]

Social concerns[edit]
Sagan believed that the Drake equation, on substitution of reasonable estimates,
suggested that a large number of extraterrestrial civilizations would form, but that the lack
of evidence of such civilizations highlighted by the Fermi
paradox suggests technological civilizations tend to self-destruct. This stimulated his
interest in identifying and publicizing ways that humanity could destroy itself, with the
hope of avoiding such a cataclysm and eventually becoming a spacefaring species.
Sagan's deep concern regarding the potential destruction of human civilization in
a nuclear holocaust was conveyed in a memorable cinematic sequence in the final
episode of Cosmos, called "Who Speaks for Earth?" Sagan had already
resigned[date missing] from the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board's UFO investigating Condon
Committee and voluntarily surrendered his top secret clearance in protest over
the Vietnam War.[57] Following his marriage to his third wife (novelist Ann Druyan) in June
1981, Sagan became more politically activeparticularly in opposing escalation of
the nuclear arms race under President Ronald Reagan.

In March 1983, Reagan announced the Strategic Defense Initiativea multibillion-dollar

project to develop a comprehensive defenseagainst attack by nuclear missiles, which
was quickly dubbed the "Star Wars" program. Sagan spoke out against the project,
arguing that it was technically impossible to develop a system with the level of perfection
required, and far more expensive to build such a system than it would be for an enemy to
defeat it through decoys and other meansand that its construction would seriously
destabilize the "nuclear balance" between the United States and the Soviet Union,
making further progress toward nuclear disarmament impossible.[citation needed]
When Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev declared a unilateral moratorium on the testing of
nuclear weapons, which would begin on August 6, 1985the 40th anniversary of
the atomic bombing of Hiroshimathe Reagan administration dismissed the dramatic
move as nothing more than propaganda, and refused to follow suit. In response, US antinuclear and peace activists staged a series of protest actions at the Nevada Test Site,
beginning on Easter Sunday in 1986 and continuing through 1987. Hundreds of people in
the "Nevada Desert Experience" group were arrested, including Sagan, who was
arrested on two separate occasions as he climbed over a chain-link fence at the test site
during the underground Operation Charioteer and United States's Musketeer nuclear test
series of detonations.[58]
Sagan was also a vocal advocate of the controversial notion of testosterone poisoning,
arguing in 1992 that human males could become gripped by an "usually severe [case of]
testosterone poisoning" and this could compel them to become genocidal.[59] In his review
ofMoondance magazine writer Daniela Gioseffi's 1990 book Women on War, he argues
that females are the only half of humanity "untainted by testosterone poisoning". [60] One
chapter of his 1993 book, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is dedicated to testosterone
and its alleged poisonous effects.[61]

Personal life and beliefs[edit]

Sagan was married three times. In 1957, he married biologist Lynn Margulis, mother
of Dorion Sagan and Jeremy Sagan. After Sagan and Margulis divorced, he married
artistLinda Salzman in 1968, mother of Nick Sagan. During these marriages, Sagan
focused heavily on his career, a factor which may have contributed to Sagan's first
divorce.[16] In 1981, Sagan married author Ann Druyan, mother of Alexandra Rachel
(Sasha) Sagan and Samuel Democritus Sagan. Sagan and Druyan remained married
until his death in 1996.
"I have just finished The Cosmic Connection and loved every word of it. You are my idea of a good
writer because you have an unmannered style, and when I read what you write, I hear you talking.
One thing about the book made me nervous. It was entirely too obvious that you are smarter than I
am. I hate that."
Isaac Asimov, in letter to Sagan, 1973[62]

Isaac Asimov described Sagan as one of only two people he ever met whose intellect
surpassed his own. The other, he claimed, was the computer scientist and artificial
intelligence expert Marvin Minsky.[63]
Sagan wrote frequently about religion and the relationship between religion and science,
expressing his skepticism about the conventional conceptualization of God as a sapient
being. For example:
Some people think God is an outsized, light-skinned male with a long white beard, sitting
on a throne somewhere up there in the sky, busily tallying the fall of every sparrow.
Othersfor example Baruch Spinozaand Albert Einsteinconsidered God to be
essentially the sum total of the physical laws which describe the universe. I do not know
of any compelling evidence for anthropomorphic patriarchs controlling human destiny
from some hidden celestial vantage point, but it would be madness to deny the existence
of physical laws.[64]
In another description of his view on the concept of God, Sagan emphatically writes:
The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and
tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous. But if by God one means the set of physical
laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally
unsatisfying ... it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.[65]
On atheism, Sagan commented in 1981:
An atheist is someone who is certain that God does not exist, someone who has
compelling evidence against the existence of God. I know of no such compelling
evidence. Because God can be relegated to remote times and places and to ultimate
causes, we would have to know a great deal more about the universe than we do now to
be sure that no such God exists. To be certain of the existence of God and to be certain
of the nonexistence of God seem to me to be the confident extremes in a subject so
riddled with doubt and uncertainty as to inspire very little confidence indeed. [66]
Sagan also commented on Christianity, stating "My long-time view about Christianity is
that it represents an amalgam of two seemingly immiscible parts, the religion of Jesus
and the religion of Paul. Thomas Jefferson attempted to excise the Pauline parts of the
New Testament. There wasn't much left when he was done, but it was an inspiring
document."[67]
Regarding the relationship between spirituality and science, Sagan stated: "Science is
not only compatible with spirituality; it is a profound source of spirituality. When we
recognize our place in an immensity of light-years and in the passage of ages, when we
grasp the intricacy, beauty, and subtlety of life, then that soaring feeling, that sense of
elation and humility combined, is surely spiritual."[68]

An environmental appeal, "Preserving and Cherishing the Earth", signed by Sagan with
other noted scientists in January 1990, stated that "The historical record makes clear that
religious teaching, example, and leadership are powerfully able to influence personal
conduct and commitment... Thus, there is a vital role for religion and science." [69]
In reply to a question in 1996 about his religious beliefs, Sagan answered, "I'm
agnostic."[70] Sagan maintained that the idea of a creator God of the Universe was difficult
to prove or disprove and that the only conceivable scientific discovery that could
challenge it would be an infinitely old universe.[71] Sagan's views on religion have been
interpreted as a form of pantheism comparable to Einstein's belief in Spinoza's God.
[72]

His son, Dorion Sagan said, "My father believed in the God of Spinoza and Einstein,

God not behind nature but as nature, equivalent to it." [73] His last wife, Ann Druyan, stated:
When my husband died, because he was so famous and known for not being a believer,
many people would come up to meit still sometimes happensand ask me if Carl
changed at the end and converted to a belief in an afterlife. They also frequently ask me
if I think I will see him again. Carl faced his death with unflagging courage and never
sought refuge in illusions. The tragedy was that we knew we would never see each other
again. I don't ever expect to be reunited with Carl. [74]
In 2006, Ann Druyan edited Sagan's 1985 Glasgow Gifford Lectures in Natural
Theology into a book, The Varieties of Scientific Experience: A Personal View of the
Search for God, in which he elaborates on his views of divinity in the natural world.
Sagan is also widely regarded as a freethinker or skeptic; one of his most famous
quotations, in Cosmos, was, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary
evidence"[75] (called the "Sagan Standard" by some[76]). This was based on a nearly
identical statement by fellow founder of the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of
Claims of the Paranormal, Marcello Truzzi, "An extraordinary claim requires extraordinary
proof."[77][78] This idea had been earlier aphorized in Thodore Flournoy's work From India
to the Planet Mars (1899) from a longer quote by Pierre-Simon Laplace (17491827), a
French mathematician and astronomer, as the Principle of Laplace: "The weight of the
evidence should be proportioned to the strangeness of the facts."[79]
Late in his life, Sagan's books elaborated on his skeptical, naturalistic view of the world.
In The Demon-Haunted World, he presented tools for testing arguments and detecting
fallacious or fraudulent ones, essentially advocating wide use of critical thinking and the
scientific method. The compilation Billions and Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at
the Brink of the Millennium, published in 1997 after Sagan's death, contains essays
written by Sagan, such as his views on abortion, and his widow Ann Druyan's account of
his death as a skeptic,agnostic, and freethinker.

Sagan warned against humans' tendency towards anthropocentrism. He was the faculty
adviser for the Cornell Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. In
the Cosmos chapter "Blues For a Red Planet", Sagan wrote, "If there is life on Mars, I
believe we should do nothing with Mars. Mars then belongs to the Martians, even if the
Martians are only microbes."[80]
Sagan was a user and advocate of marijuana. Under the pseudonym "Mr. X", he
contributed an essay about smoking cannabis to the 1971 book Marihuana
Reconsidered.[81][82]The essay explained that marijuana use had helped to inspire some of
Sagan's works and enhance sensual and intellectual experiences. After Sagan's death,
his friend Lester Grinspoon disclosed this information to Sagan's biographer, Keay
Davidson. The publishing of the biography, Carl Sagan: A Life, in 1999 brought media
attention to this aspect of Sagan's life.[83][84][85] Not long after his death, widow Ann Druyan
had gone on to preside over the board of directors of the National Organization for the
Reform of Marijuana Laws (NORML), a non-profit organization dedicated to reforming
cannabis laws.[86][87]
In 1994, engineers at Apple Computer code-named the Power Macintosh 7100 "Carl
Sagan" in the hope that Apple would make "billions and billions" with the sale of the
PowerMac 7100.[3] The name was only used internally, but Sagan was concerned that it
would become a product endorsement and sent Apple a cease-and-desist letter. Apple
complied, but engineers retaliated by changing the internal codename to "BHA" for ButtHead Astronomer.[88][89] Sagan then sued Apple for libel in federal court. The court granted
Apple's motion to dismiss Sagan's claims and opined in dicta that a reader aware of the
context would understand Apple was "clearly attempting to retaliate in a humorous and
satirical way", and that It strains reason to conclude that Defendant was attempting to
criticize Plaintiff's reputation or competency as an astronomer. One does not seriously
attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase butt-head. [88][90] Sagan then
sued for Apple's original use of his name and likeness, but again lost.[91]Sagan appealed
the ruling.[91] In November 1995, an out-of-court settlement was reached and Apple's
office of trademarks and patents released a conciliatory statement that Apple has always
had great respect for Dr. Sagan. It was never Apple's intention to cause Dr. Sagan or his
family any embarrassment or concern.[92] Apple's third and final code name for the
project was "LAW", short for "Lawyers are Wimps".[89]
Sagan briefly served as an adviser on Stanley Kubrick's film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
[6]:168

Sagan proposed that the film suggest, rather than depict, extraterrestrial

superintelligence.[93]

Sagan and UFOs[edit]

In 1947, the year that inaugurated the "flying saucer" craze, the young Sagan suspected
the "discs" might be alien spaceships.[8]
Sagan's interest in UFO reports prompted him on August 3, 1952, to write a letter to
U.S. Secretary of State Dean Acheson to ask how the United States would respond if
flying saucers turned out to be extraterrestrial.[6]:5152 He later had several conversations on
the subject in 1964 with Jacques Valle.[94] Though quite skeptical of any extraordinary
answer to the UFO question, Sagan thought scientists should study the phenomenon, at
least because there was widespread public interest in UFO reports.
Stuart Appelle notes that Sagan "wrote frequently on what he perceived as
the logical and empirical fallacies regarding UFOs and the abduction experience. Sagan
rejected anextraterrestrial explanation for the phenomenon but felt there were both
empirical and pedagogical benefits for examining UFO reports and that the subject was,
therefore, a legitimate topic of study."[95]
In 1966 Sagan was a member of the Ad Hoc Committee to Review Project Blue Book,
the U.S. Air Force's UFO investigation project. The committee concluded Blue Book had
been lacking as a scientific study, and recommended a university-based project to give
the UFO phenomenon closer scientific scrutiny. The result was the Condon
Committee(196668), led by physicist Edward Condon, and in their final report they
formally concluded that UFOs, regardless of what any of them actually were, did not
behave in a manner consistent with a threat to national security.
Sociologist Ron Westrum writes that "The high point of Sagan's treatment of the UFO
question was the AAAS' symposium in 1969. A wide range of educated opinions on the
subject were offered by participants, including not only proponents such as James
McDonald and J. Allen Hynek but also skeptics like astronomers William
Hartmann and Donald Menzel. The roster of speakers was balanced, and it is to Sagan's
credit that this event was presented in spite of pressure from Edward Condon." [94] With
physicist Thornton Page, Sagan edited the lectures and discussions given at the
symposium; these were published in 1972 as UFO's: A Scientific Debate. Some of
Sagan's many books examine UFOs (as did one episode of Cosmos) and he claimed a
religious undercurrent to the phenomenon.
Sagan again revealed his views on interstellar travel in his 1980 Cosmos series. In one of
his last written works, Sagan argued that the chances of extraterrestrial spacecraft
visiting Earth are vanishingly small. However, Sagan did think it plausible that Cold War
concerns contributed to governments misleading their citizens about UFOs, and wrote
that "some UFO reports and analyses, and perhaps voluminous files, have been made
inaccessible to the public which pays the bills ... It's time for the files to be declassified
and made generally available." He cautioned against jumping to conclusions about

suppressed UFO data and stressed that there was no strong evidence that aliens were
visiting the Earth either in the past or present.[96]

Death[edit]
After suffering from myelodysplasia for two years, and receiving three bone marrow
transplants (the donor was his sister Cari), Sagan died of pneumonia at the age of 62 at
the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, in the early
morning of December 20, 1996.[97] He was buried at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca, New
York.[98]

Posthumous recognition[edit]
The 1997 movie Contact, based on Sagan's novel of the same name and finished after
his death, ends with the dedication "For Carl". His photo can also be seen at 59:23 in the
film.
In 1997 the Sagan Planet Walk was opened in Ithaca, New York. It is a walking-scale
model of the Solar System, extending 1.2 km from the center of The Commons in
downtown Ithaca to the Sciencenter, a hands-on museum. The exhibition was created in
memory of Carl Sagan, who was an Ithaca resident and Cornell Professor. Professor
Sagan had been a founding member of the museum's advisory board. [99]
The landing site of the unmanned Mars Pathfinder spacecraft was renamed the Carl
Sagan Memorial Station on July 5, 1997. Asteroid 2709 Sagan is named in his honor, as
is the Carl Sagan Institute for the search of habitable planets.
Sagan's son, Nick Sagan, wrote several episodes in the Star Trek franchise. In an
episode of Star Trek: Enterprise entitled "Terra Prime", a quick shot is shown of the
relic roverSojourner, part of the Mars Pathfinder mission, placed by a historical marker
at Carl Sagan Memorial Station on the Martian surface. The marker displays a quote
from Sagan: "Whatever the reason you're on Mars, I'm glad you're there, and I wish I was
with you." Sagan's student Steve Squyres led the team that landed the
rovers Spirit and Opportunitysuccessfully on Mars in 2004.
On November 9, 2001, on what would have been Sagan's 67th birthday, the Ames
Research Center dedicated the site for the Carl Sagan Center for the Study of Life in the
Cosmos. "Carl was an incredible visionary, and now his legacy can be preserved and
advanced by a 21st century research and education laboratory committed to enhancing
our understanding of life in the universe and furthering the cause of space exploration for
all time", said NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin. Ann Druyan was at the Center as it
opened its doors on October 22, 2006.
Sagan has at least three awards named in his honor:

The Carl Sagan Memorial Award presented jointly since 1997 by the American
Astronomical Society and The Planetary Society,

The Carl Sagan Medal for Excellence in Public Communication in Planetary Science
presented since 1998 by the American Astronomical Society's Division for Planetary
Sciences (AAS/DPS) for outstanding communication by an active planetary scientist
to the general publicCarl Sagan was one of the original organizing committee
members of the DPS, and

The Carl Sagan Award for Public Understanding of Science presented by the Council
of Scientific Society Presidents (CSSP)Sagan was the first recipient of the CSSP
award in 1993.[100]

In 2006, the Carl Sagan Medal was awarded to astrobiologist and author David
Grinspoon, the son of Sagan's close friend Lester Grinspoon.
August 2007 the Independent Investigations Group (IIG) awarded Sagan posthumously a
Lifetime Achievement Award. This honor has also been awarded to Harry
Houdini andJames Randi.[101]
Beginning in 2009, a musical project known as Symphony of Science sampled several
excerpts of Sagan from his series Cosmos and remixed them to electronic music. To
date, the videos have received over 21 million views worldwide on YouTube.[102]
In February 2015, the Finnish-based symphonic metal band Nightwish released the song
"Sagan" as a non-album bonus track for their single "lan".[103] The song, written by the
band's songwriter/composer/keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen, is an homage to the life
and work of the late Carl Sagan.
In August 2015, it was announced that a biopic of Sagan's life was being planned by
Warner Brothers.[104]

Awards and honors[edit]

Annual Award for Television Excellence1981Ohio State UniversityPBS series Cosmos:

A Personal Voyage

Apollo Achievement AwardNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA Distinguished Public Service MedalNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

(1977)

EmmyOutstanding Individual Achievement1981PBS series Cosmos: A Personal

Voyage[29]

EmmyOutstanding Informational Series1981PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage[29]

Exceptional Scientific Achievement MedalNational Aeronautics and Space Administration

Helen Caldicott Leadership Award Awarded by Women's Action for Nuclear Disarmament

Hugo Award1981Best Dramatic PresentationCosmos: A Personal Voyage

Hugo Award1981Best Related Non-Fiction BookCosmos

Hugo Award1998Best Dramatic PresentationContact

Humanist of the Year1981Awarded by the American Humanist Association[105]

American Philosophical Society1995Elected to membership.[106]

In Praise of Reason Award1987Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the

Paranormal

Isaac Asimov Award1994Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the

Paranormal

John F. Kennedy Astronautics Award1982American Astronautical Society[107]

Special non-fiction Campbell Memorial Award1974The Cosmic Connection: An

Extraterrestrial Perspective[108]

Joseph Priestley Award"For distinguished contributions to the welfare of mankind" [citation needed]

Klumpke-Roberts Award of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific1974

Konstantin Tsiolkovsky MedalAwarded by the Soviet Cosmonauts Federation

Locus Award 1986Contact

Lowell Thomas AwardThe Explorers Club75th Anniversary

Masursky AwardAmerican Astronomical Society

Miller Research FellowshipMiller Institute (19601962)

Oersted Medal1990American Association of Physics Teachers

Peabody Award1980PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage

Le Prix Galabert dastronautiqueInternational Astronautical Federation(IAF)[citation needed]

Public Welfare Medal1994National Academy of Sciences[109]

Pulitzer Prize for General Non-Fiction1978The Dragons of Eden

Science Fiction Chronicle Award1998Dramatic PresentationContact

Named the "99th Greatest American" on June 5, 2005, Greatest Americantelevision series on
the Discovery Channel[citation needed]

Named an honorary member of the Demosthenian Literary Society on November 10, 2011

New Jersey Hall of Fame2009Inductee.[110]