Today in the history of astronomy, a great leader of astronomy has been born.
As a member of the Voyager imaging team, Carl Sagan suggested the infamous “Pale Blue Dot” photo taken by Voyager 1 on February 14, 1991. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
- American astronomer Carl Sagan was an important figure in popularizing astronomy, particularly through the widely watched television series *Cosmos: A Personal Voyage* and several influential popular science books.
- Sagan’s scientific contributions included estimating the extreme surface temperatures of Venus due to the greenhouse effect and hypothesizing the existence of a subsurface ocean on Jupiter’s moon Europa.
- As a member of the NASA Voyager probe’s imaging team, Sagan conceived the strategy for Voyager 1 to capture the iconic “Pale Blue Dot” image of Earth from a distance of 3.7 billion miles.
- He later clarified the profound philosophical and existential significance of “Pale Blue Dot”, emphasizing humanity’s shared existence on a small, distant world.
No one did more to popularize astronomy than American astronomer Carl Sagan, who was born on November 9, 1939 in New York. 1980s historical television series Cosmos: A Personal Journeywhich he co-wrote and narrated, has been viewed by more than half a billion people. He also wrote popular science books, including dragons of eden, light blue dotand novels ContactWhich was turned into a movie.
But scientifically, Sagan was no idiot. He predicted that the temperature of Venus should be above the melting point of lead due to the greenhouse effect. He also hypothesized that Jupiter’s moon Europa might have an underground ocean.
As a member of the imaging team for NASA’s Voyager probe, Sagan devised the idea for Voyager 1 to image what would become known as the Pale Blue Dot. In this the Earth is seen from a distance of 3.7 billion miles (6 billion kilometers). He later wrote, “Look at that dot again. She’s here. She’s home. She’s us. On it are everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you’ve ever heard of, every human being who ever was, who lived his life… on a speck of dust hanging in a sunbeam.”
