Carl Edward Sagan, an American astronomer, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, science popularizer, and science communicator in astronomy and other natural sciences, was born on November 9, 1934, and passed away on December 20, 1996.
He is renowned for his groundbreaking work as a science popularizer and communicator, and his most notable scientific contribution is research on extraterrestrial life, including experimental demonstrations of the production of amino acids from basic chemicals by radiation.
Sagan was responsible for assembling the first physical messages 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 also argued the now accepted hypothesis that the high surface temperatures of Venus can be attributed to and calculated using the greenhouse effect.
Throughout his illustrious career, Sagan published over 600 scientific papers and articles and authored, co-authored, or edited more than 20 books. He wrote numerous popular science books, including 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. The book Cosmos was published to accompany the series. Additionally, Sagan wrote the science fiction novel Contact, which served as the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.
