A Life in the Cosmos

It is amazing to think that he has lost almost 15 years since the world has great astronomer, a pioneer in the popularization of science and astrobiology - Carl Sagan.
The son of Jewish immigrants in the United States was Sagan in Brooklyn, New York, where he spent his childhood develop an interest in astronomy was born. He studied high-flyer, he physics at the University of Chicago, a master of victory in 1956, before he received his Ph.D. in 1960 in the field of astronomy and astrophysics. He worked as an assistant at Harvard University until 1968, when the passage at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York attracts. In 1971 he became a full-time faculty, which includes control laboratories of planetary research. It also has a growing interest in astrobiology perspective and pay attention to the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). During this period he was also deputy director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research at Cornell University, and was to promote the teaching of thinking at Cornell University in the skepticism and criticism.
Such an academic career would have been quite remarkable in itself, but Sagan was deeply involved in the U.S. space program since 1950 - including his famous statement Apollo astronauts before the flight to the moon. But the greatest interest was the exploration of the most talented planetary scientists, and a growing number of missions NASA robot in the neighboring planets of the solar system. In fact, he was responsible for much of biology and chemistry, lab packs on these unmanned probes down. He also received international attention for his idea of ​​a gold anodized universal constant messages on the unmanned spacecraft designed to leave our solar system. He was the Pioneer 10 and 11 in 1972 and established in 1973, respectively. In which, however, there is little hope that the delegates of mankind, one day after millions of years of extraterrestrial intelligence, the plates were developed and together with the Golden Record Sounds of the Earth were returned to the unmanned Voyager began to explore the outer solar system in 1977.
Sagan scientific achievements of research and discovery of other planets in our solar system, and their applicability in the field have been enormous. It was equally important to open a high temperature of the surface temperature of Venus 500 degrees Celsius, and pressure crushing atmospheric data obtained from the radio world. While working at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory of NASA in Pasadena, he participated in the design and management of the first mission to Mars, Mariner. Mariner 2 confirmed later analysis Sagan, Venus is really bad Twin Earth, not heaven scent that was the assumption of many scientists in the early 1960s. Through his study of Venus and the greenhouse effect, it identifies the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide on the Earth as a potential cause of climate change. He was also a fervent opponent of the war of arms race to justify their views on research on the effects of nuclear winter cold - one of the consequences of complete nuclear superpower.
Sagan was the first scientist to suggest that Saturn's moon may be a liquid ocean of titanium and lakes of methane or ethane, and the reddish haze was the result lunar atmosphere from complex organic molecules. It would be the death of Sagan Cassini-Huygens lander and titanium-related confirmed. It is suspected that the Jovian moon Europa subsurface ocean of liquid water. It is thought he may have under the ice cover in these low temperatures, due to the heat of the volcano in Europe, highlighted by the massive tides on the Moon because of its proximity to the gas giants.
His other achievements include work on the seasonal changes on Mars, including the fact that it has correctly identified the storms, while many other scientists, in their view, the vegetation. His interest in the possibility of extraterrestrial life led him to demonstrate, such as amino acids, the building blocks of life, may, by irradiation, the basic organic chemical compounds are abundant in the gas giants in our solar system, and a found was many moons. In this regard, he and Dr. Frank Drake Arecibo in a letter (which has made the now-famous Drake equation, complete with his now reduce the number of variables for calculation of the total foreign intelligence capable of interstellar radio communications in the Milky Way) supports the message Hercules Star Cluster beams (M13) in 1974 to inform foreigners of the land. Sagan was also a founding member of the Planetary Society, an organization that represents the active participation of the international community in exploring the planets and promotes new forms of movement, like a solar sail.
First, it's a huge heritage Sagan science advocacy and especially its many innovative scientific training, publications and documents, brought him public recognition, particularly in the cosmos: a personal journey. Strongly depends on the success of Jacob Bronowski ascension BBC series of man (1974), influenced by Sagan PBS to produce (with Steven Soter colleagues and Ann Druyan), this epic documentary series
As one of the popularizers of astronomy and of true science, Sagan took the opportunity. The result has been an inspiration, waste and totally delicious thirteen part series, first issued in 1980 and is (according to the NASA Office of Space Science) by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries - is still the most popular series of science documentaries on anything. It is therefore hardly surprising that the series was immediately received an Emmy and Peabody Award. Druyan notes, as a tribute to the vision of her late husband, that even the latest digital remastering of the series needs a little update the actual content.
Power delivery Sagan Cosmos is inspiring the most important issue - our unity with the cosmos. Space for an experience the most spiritually lifting is all the more remarkable because it is a series of science. For example, explains how we and all beings with whom we share the earth are all made of material elements out of our own bodies, including the calcium in our bones and iron in the blood of carbon in each of each cell. During the first light elements like hydrogen and helium were formed in the Big Bang nucleosynthesis, the heavy elements such as nickel, copper, iron and oxygen in the nuclear furnaces of stars long dead have been synthesized, many of whom became supernovae. Heavy chemical elements were the product as soon as the first generation of stars has used all its hydrogen fuel.
Sagan sums up the whole process of moving in the introduction to the series as the book, in fact, the cosmos, everything that had happened, and all that ever will be. Through a process of years of cosmic evolution by 14000000000 and Darwin's natural selection in humans and has become a special part of the cosmos. In fact, humanity is in space of their intelligence and understanding has developed - the star-star stuff harvesting and questions about its existence
In the context of complexity theories and scientific concepts, such as the theory of relativity, Darwinian selection and the atomic theory and presents them to the right, but easily understandable manner, without using complex mathematical set Sagan's work for the future of humanity for the understanding of science and commitment to what he called the scientific enterprise and Druyan. Despite many scientific discoveries have easy access to the general public, he received much criticism from the scientific elite, no doubt many jealous of his fame earned or angry attacks on its interests. His explanation of the theory of relativity in space, traveling through time and space, ways to deepen until the introduction of the most clear and understandable to the subject, attempting to the reader or viewer.
Subject specific lobbying appears repeatedly in many books, Sagan Pale Blue Dot: Vision of the future of mankind in outer space Demon Haunted World, and: Science as a Candle in the dark. He uses the example of the destruction of the Great Royal Library of Alexandria, Ptolemy II, in 415AD, and the murder of Hypatia, librarian and the first woman mathematician of the crowd of the world past, an example of what can happen if knowledge is kept secret ruling elite. The destruction of great libraries, and the Ionian civilization was centuries before the loss of invaluable knowledge of over a thousand years have accumulated, and the beginning of a dark era in human history. That time was made of mysticism, fanaticism, extremism and racial and religious hatred, and witchcraft, of which only persecuted Copernicus, Kepler, Tyco Brahe and Galileo and Giordano Bruno (many were still in the seventeenth century, the Roman Catholic Church, where Bruno's speculations about the act of heresy, the galaxy is full of planets beyond our solar system and the foreigners killed.)
No threat to our present civilization has evaporated because of ignorance. In Pale Blue Dot, Sagan said, we (Western civilization), he advanced societies, particularly in high technology and science, where only a small proportion of the population does not have scientific knowledge in industry. This is done to Sagan, the rise of religious extremism, racial hatred, superstition is connected, the supernatural and pseudo-science of a recipe for disaster, and, given our modern weapons and eventually explode our faces.
Sagan urged scientists and science enthusiasts to become members on the subject. Contributes two Viking landing on Mars in the summer of 1976, and Voyager missions to outer planets in the 1980s, he used the Voyager photo 1 Pale Blue Dot Earth as an example. Senior NASA did not want to reconfigure the spacecraft to waste resources on a photo of the six billion miles from Earth increases. Sagan called on their heads, referring to the huge public interest in photography. Finally, he explained that the American public was funded by NASA and as a cashier, they have the right to live what would become one of the most famous photographs ever - exposed to the Earth as a speck of dust bright blue in a sunbeam. There is no certainty that humanity self-destruction or by environmental destruction or weapons of mass destruction (and there are more than enough yet available) to avoid.
In both the Cosmos and Pale Blue Dot, Sagan suggests that to gain the same interstellar communication skills, culture, and for atomic physics, and perhaps more or less directly to the use of nuclear weapons s' engage in self-destruction. Maybe that's why we have not visited ET. Or, as Sagan, perhaps HE constantly with its own production of environmental destruction. But first, Sagan, in all its science promotion is optimistic that humanity can and will meet the challenges of our nature, the comparison of our technology with convictions and accidents of this nature on asteroids Earth, such as the jet. This is achieved, according to him, the same scientific enterprise, with an effective independent critical review of facts and theories, rather than superstition, mysticism, or UFO.
Scientists incredible leaps in the last 400 years, such as engineering and medicine - Infact almost every aspect of modern industrial technologies. Compare that, said Sagan, is the fact that other areas of human thought and belief in the quality of life provided. Instead of wanting to believe in something wonderful - something amazing. To add to all human knowledge about space, or you show the child, the Andromeda galaxy. Show them how to light quickly, as we know it took about 2.5 million years to reach our incredible eyes! Encourage them to grow naturally, innate human curiosity of science and the universe in which we live.
Sagan in the space of powerful states that the ritual of birth, to win every child, every generation of the knowledge of their place in the universe and to assess how knowledge and facts. To do less would be dangerous, said that for the first character charlatan, perhaps even at the level of society - and there are many examples of this in human history. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence indeed. As Sagan says there are no authorities in science, it must be fully democratic, based on verified facts and theories that are easily refutable. But it is also about very human and creative. Nobody knows, comes from the date of the next Einstein or Newton
No article about Carl Sagan would be complete without mentioning the contact. The book on which the film it is largely based, was written by Carl Sagan and published in 1985. Some features of Sagan in the main character, Ellie Arroway obvious, and the novel is an exciting platform in which he plays a lot of ideas for the interests of his life, especially in the first contact with extraterrestrials. The film version of Contact, Jodie Foster in the title role, was released in 1997. Without spoiling the film for always watching, said Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster), after several years of research of "truth" on the radio, radio astronomical data consistently intelligent aliens, who have since received our first radio television since the early twentieth century. Foreigners planning to send about how the human race to build a machine with enormous wormhole technology (scientific theory behind this was confirmed as a true scientist, Sagan and colleagues Kip Thorne). The role of Dorothy in the film combined with Palmer Joss (Matthew McConaughey). He spent his life to finding the "truth" through faith in God. The first radio "contact" means that both Ellie and Palmer, and that every person on Earth, are forced to question their own assumptions. In the inevitable first contact, humanity will be able to find a compromise between science and faith? When the film is worth watching - that's it!
Tragically, Sagan died in December 1996 after a long battle with myelodysplasia, a rare form of bone cancer at a relatively young age of 62. Voice of reason and science in a world where superstition and mysticism on the rise again, to which he belonged was a talented man, he could at a critical time in its history, at least afford to lose. The challenge is to its readers, viewers and students to pick up the gauntlet.
If you never tried to understand why you are so zealous for astronomy and cosmology, to reconsider the legacy of Carl Sagan huge astronomical interest to the public. It briefly explains why we at the thought of space and tingling a lot of time out on the ground - he was back in our genes to the stars. More importantly, you will find great value in science and inspire your children or the younger generations tend to theme. But you're probably in reducing and sensation Globalization science documentaries on television in depression. If so, and you will be able to see or play the Cosmos or information through any other media publications Sagan. Let the powerful master of space in your home and let the joy of your family and friends and people your interest in science.
Demonstration of a powerful teaching is Sayang and inspiration in many of his students and colleagues, who have won a leading role in space exploration. These include Carolyn Porco, the leading U.S. planetary scientists, Director Hayden Planetarium in New York and PBS-NOVA host Neil deGrasse Tyson, and Steve Squyres, principal investigator of NASA's Mars Exploration Rovers Spirit and Opportunity. On a personal level, if not the ability to view PBS series Cosmos, one five years ago, you would not be reading this now, and you will not see me or my son really enjoyed our stay in our local planetarium or our nights under the stars with our telescope old!