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Exceptional Service Medal (NASA) |
Sagan, Carl Edward(Sagan, Carl Edward; 1934, New York, – 1996, Seattle) - American astronomer, biologist, science popularizer and writer.
Biographical information
Born into a family of emigrants from Russia.
Graduated from the University of Chicago (1954), received a doctorate (1960). Sagan held a research position at the University of California, Berkeley (1960–62); then assistant professor of genetics at Stanford University School of Medicine (1962–63); assistant professor of astronomy at Harvard University and astrophysicist at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (1962–68); Director of the Planetary Science Laboratory at Cornell University (since 1968), Professor of Astronomy (since 1970, then Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Science since 1976), and Associate Director of the Center for Radiophysics and Space Research (since 1975 .) of the same university.
As a visiting professor (in particular, at the California Institute of Technology, 1971–72, 1976–77), he lectured at many universities and scientific societies (since 1967). He was also Chairman of the Planetary Science Division of the American Astronomical Society and the Astronomical Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (1975–76), one of the founders and President of the Planetary Society (1979), Chairman of the Planetary Science Section of the American Geophysical Union (1980–82), Vice Chairman of the Working Group on the Moon and Planets at the Space Research Committee (1968–74).
Scientific achievements
Sagan's main scientific interests are the study of the planets of the solar system and the problems of the existence of life and intelligence on them or around other stars in space. Since 1959, Sagan has been actively involved in the activities of the American Space Exploration Society (NASA). He was the inspiration for American space exploration programs of the Moon and planets of the Solar System on uncrewed spacecraft: Apollo (1969–72), Mariner, Viking, Voyager (1962, 1971–72, 1976, 1979–81), Payenier. Pianier-10 (1972), on the initiative of Sagan, carries a message in space on behalf of humanity to the carriers of intelligence.
Sagan was Chairman of the NASA Research Group on Machine Intelligence and Robotics (1977–79), President of the Foundation for Communications with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (1978), etc. Sagan was a member of numerous scientific societies: International Astronomical Union, American Astronomical Society, American Geophysical Union, American Physical Society, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Astronautical Society (Director 1976–79), International Academy of Astronautics, International Society for the Study of the Origin of Life, British Society for Interplanetary Exploration, etc.
Awards and fame
For his contributions to science, literature, education and environmental protection, Sagan received honorary doctorates from more than 20 colleges and universities, numerous awards and prizes for scientific achievements in the field of astronomy and astronautics, and the J. Pulitzer Prize for the best popular science book (1978) and an award from the Television Writers Association of America (1991). In addition, he was awarded the NASA Medal of Honor for outstanding achievements in the field of astronautics, the K. Tsiolkovsky Medal from the Soviet Cosmonautics Federation, twice the American Medal for Distinguished Service to Society, etc. Asteroid 2709 is named after Sagan.
Books and publications
Sagan is the author of 350 scientific articles, as well as many popular science books (some co-authored). A significant part of his books is devoted to astronomy, space research and their popularization: “Intelligent Life in the Universe” (1966, together with I. Shklovsky; this is a significantly expanded translation from Shklovsky’s Russian book “The Universe, Life, Mind”, 1962), “Planets” (1966, 1969), Planetary Exploration (1970), Cosmic Communication: Extraterrestrial Perspectives (1973), Mars and the Human Mind (1973), Elseworlds (1975), Earth Whispers: The Voyager Interstellar Record "(1978), "Comets" (1985), "The Future of Humanity in Space" (1990).
Sagan is the editor or co-editor of a number of books on the same topics: “The Atmosphere of Mars and Venus” (1961); “Connection with Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (1973; Russian edition - “CETI Problem / Communication with Extraterrestrial Civilizations /”, 1975 - collection of proceedings of a joint conference of the US and USSR Academy of Sciences, held in 1971 in Byurakan); "UFO: Scientific Controversy" (1972). Sagan also studied the philosophy of science and fought against prejudices (the work “The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Torch in the Dark,” 1996).
After the death of A. Asimov, Sagan became the most famous popularizer of science in the United States, in particular, the creator and host of the popular science television series “Cosmos” (1980). Sagan dealt with the problem of the emergence and evolution of life and mind: “Dragons of Eden. Reasoning about the evolution of the human mind" (1977; Russian translation 1986), "Broca's Brain Center. Reflections on the Romance of Science" (1979), etc.
Sagan’s work pays attention to the consequences of the Cold War (the book “The Air War in Indochina” /1971/ and “The Path Nobody Thought About. Thermonuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race” /co-authored, 1990/); For the idea of “thermonuclear winter” he received the Mazursky Prize from the American Astronomical Society. Sagan is the author of the science fiction novel Contact (1985), on which the film of the same name was based.
After Sagan's death, the Pioneer rover was renamed the Sagan Memorial Station. The American Astronautical Society's Division of Planetary Science has established the Sagan Medal, which recognizes outstanding astronomers.
Main works
- K. Sagan and Jonathan Norton Leonard with the editors of Life magazine - Planets, Time Inc., 1966.
- K. Sagan and I. S. Shklovsky, “Intelligent Life in the Universe” (eng. Intelligent Life in the Universe ). Random House, 1966.
- K. Sagan, “Connecting with Extraterrestrial Intelligence” (eng. Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence ). MIT Press, 1973.
- K. Sagan et al. “Mars and the Human Mind” (eng. Mars and the Mind of Man). Harper & Row, 1973.
- K. Sagan, “Other Worlds” (eng. Other Worlds). Bantam Books, 1975.
- K. Sagan et al. (“Sounds of the Earth: Voyager Interstellar Recording”) (eng. Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record ). Random House, 1977.
- K. Sagan et al. “Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War” (eng. The Nuclear Winter: The World After Nuclear War ). Sidgwick & Jackson, 1985.
- K. Sagan, “Contact”. Simon and Schuster, 1985; Republished August 1997 by Doubleday Books, ISBN 1-56865-424-3, 352 pp.
- K. Sagan and Richard Tarko, The Way No One Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race. A Path Where No Man Thought: Nuclear Winter and the End of the Arms Race . Random House, 1990
- K. Sagan, “Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of the Human Brain” (eng. Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence ). Ballantine Books, December 1989, ISBN 0-345-34629-7, 288 pp.
- K. Sagan, “Broca's Brain: Speculations on the Romances of Science” (eng. Broca's Brain: Reflections on the Romance of Science ). Ballantine Books, 1993
Carl Edward Sagan (Carl Edward Sagan, November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, and prominent popularizer of science.
Sagan was a pioneer in the field of exobiology and gave impetus to the development of the SETI project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He gained worldwide fame for his non-fiction books and television mini-series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.” He is also the author of the science fiction novel Contact, which was made into a film of the same name in 1997.
In 1951, Sagan entered the University of Chicago, where he received a bachelor's degree (1955) and then a master's degree (1956) in physics, and in 1960 he defended his doctorate (PhD) dissertation in astronomy and astrophysics. In addition, he managed to work in the laboratory of geneticist Hermann Joseph Möller and wrote a dissertation on the origin of life under the supervision of physical chemist Harold Clayton Urey. He used the summer months to work with planetary scientist Gerard Kuiper, physicist Georgi Gamow and biochemist Melvin Calvin.
From 1960 to 1962, Sagan worked as an assistant at the Yerke Observatory of the University of Chicago, the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University.
In the early 1960s, no one knew for sure what the surface of Venus was like. Sagan listed possible conditions on Venus in his report (which was later published in Time Life magazine's book Planets). Carl Sagan himself believed that the surface of Venus was dry and very hot. He worked as a visiting scientist at Caltech's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and contributed to the design and execution of the first Mariner mission to Venus. Venera 4 in 1967 confirmed his assumptions about conditions on the surface of Venus.
From 1962-1968, Carl Sagan taught astronomy at Harvard University. In 1968 he moved to Cornell University. In 1971, Sagan became a professor of astronomy and space exploration and director of the Laboratory for the Study of Planets. He contributed to virtually every unmanned space mission that explored the solar system. He was the first to propose the idea of sending a message to extraterrestrial civilizations with all space probes that leave the solar system. The first message to be sent into space was a plate of anodized aluminum attached to the Pioneer 10 space probe. Carl Sagan continued to work on the messages. The most detailed message he helped develop was the Voyager Golden Record, sent into space on the Voyager space probes.
Books (6)
Collection of books
Carl Sagan proposed the idea of searching for extraterrestrial life, called on the scientific community to search for signals from intelligent extraterrestrial life forms using large radio telescopes and sending probes to other planets.
He was the editor-in-chief of the journal Icarus, dedicated to planetary research for 12 years. He was a founding member of the Planetary Society and a member of the SETI Institute's Board of Trustees.
Atmospheres of Mars and Venus
The book is devoted to a review of the latest data on the atmospheres of the closest planets to us - Mars and Venus. The authors dwell in detail on the results of visual, photographic, spectroscopic and radio astronomical observations of the planets and discuss programs for their future research from artificial satellites and spacecraft.
The appendices to the book examine in more detail the capabilities of various methods of studying planets, including infrared spectroscopy, radar and radio astronomy, outline the theory of atmospheric circulation and its application to describe climatic conditions on the planets, and consider projects for the first flights to Mars and Venus.
The book is of great interest to astronomers, astrophysicists and geophysicists, as well as to all persons interested in the latest data on the nature of the planets closest to us. It will also be of interest to lecturers and science popularizers.
Dragons of Eden. Speculations on the evolution of the human mind
The famous American astrophysicist and popularizer of science Carl Sagan (1934-1996) has been interested in the problem of the origin of life and mind since his student years.
His book Dragons of Eden (1977), about the evolution of the human mind, was awarded the Pulitzer Prize.
Space
The book by the famous American astrophysicist and popularizer of science K. Sagan talks about the evolution of the Universe, the formation of galaxies and the origin of life and intelligence.
Blue dot. The space future of humanity
An outstanding popularizer of science, a wonderful storyteller, a passionate promoter of space, and a visionary, Carl Sagan believes that the desire to wander and expand the boundaries of knowledge is inherent in human nature and is connected with our survival as a species.
His candid, engrossing book interweaves philosophical reflections with enthusiastic descriptions of triumphant exploration of planets and satellites, both by man and robotic missions to the Moon. By introducing us to our neighbors in space, Sagan not only enlightens and delights the reader, he also helps to understand how to protect the Earth.
A world full of demons. Science is like a candle in the darkness
A Demonful World is the last book by Carl Sagan, an astronomer, astrophysicist and outstanding popularizer of science, published after his death.
This book, dedicated to one of his favorite topics - the human mind and the fight against pseudoscientific stupidity - is a kind of summation of all his work. Myths about Atlantis and Lemuria, faces on Mars and encounters with aliens, magic and reincarnation, clairvoyance and Bigfoot, creationism and astrology - Sagan consistently and mercilessly exposes the myths created by ignorance, fear and self-interest.
This book is a skeptic's manifesto, a textbook of common sense and the scientific method. A bright, deeply personal text - not only a battle against pseudoscience, but also an amazing picture of the formation of a scientific worldview, the greatest discoveries and ascetics.
Carl Edward Sagan (Seigen; English Carl Edward Sagan) - American astronomer, astrophysicist and outstanding popularizer of science.
Sagan was a pioneer in the field of exobiology and gave impetus to the development of the SETI project to search for extraterrestrial intelligence. He gained worldwide fame for his non-fiction books and television mini-series “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.” He is also the author of the novel Contact, on which the film of the same name was made in 1997.
Born in New York. In 1951 he entered the University of Chicago; in 1954 received a bachelor's degree, in 1960 - a doctorate in astronomy and astrophysics. Worked as a laboratory assistant at the University of St. Indiana with Nobel laureate, geneticist G. Möller in 1952–1953. At the University of Chicago, Sagan was greatly influenced by H. Urey and J. Kuiper. From 1960 to 1962, Sagan worked as an assistant at the Yerke Observatory of the University of Chicago, the University of California at Berkeley, and Stanford University. From 1962 to 1968 he taught astronomy at Harvard University and worked at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. From 1968 until the end of his life, he was a professor of astronomy and space science at Cornell University, as well as director of the Laboratory for the Study of Planets.
Sagan's works are devoted to the physics of planets, the problems of the origin of life and the possibility of its existence outside the Earth. Sagan is the creator of the “greenhouse model” of the atmosphere of Venus, which explains the presence of high temperatures on the surface of the planet. His studies of the surface of Mars are known: the scientist suggested the existence of large differences in altitude on Mars, explained seasonal changes in the contrast between light and dark areas by the transfer of dust from high-mountainous regions to low-lying ones and back. Discovered organic molecules in the atmosphere of Jupiter.
Sagan actively participated in the space exploration programs of Venus (“Mariner 2”, 1962), Mars (“Mariner 9”, 1971–1972, “Viking 1” and “Viking 2”, 1976), Jupiter and Saturn (“ Voyager 1 and Voyager 2, 1977–1981). He participated in experiments modeling the formation of organic substances in the Earth's atmosphere, and in 1963 he illustrated the formation of adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Sagan’s views on the problems of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations are presented in the books Intelligent Life in the Universe (1966; co-authored with I.S. Shklovsky), Communication with Extraterrestrial Intelligence (1973), Cosmic Communication (The Cosmic Connection, 1973).
The theme of connections with extraterrestrial civilizations was embodied in Sagan’s science fiction novel Contact (Contact, 1985; Russian translation 1994). The book Cosmos (Cosmos, 1980) became a bestseller, and the 13-episode film created on its basis was seen by more than 500 million people. Sagan's book Pale Blue Dot (1994) is dedicated to the cosmic future of humanity. His many awards include the Pulitzer Prize for his book Dragons of Eden. Speculations on the Evolution of the Human Brain (Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, 1977; Russian translation 1986).
In 1979, Sagan founded the Planetary Society, which by the end of the 20th century. has become the largest association of people interested in space. In 1980, the work of Sagan and his colleagues on the possible climatic consequences of a nuclear war caused widespread public resonance. Scientists have concluded that these consequences may be much more serious than previously thought, since the products of explosions, rising high in the atmosphere, will absorb sunlight and this will lead to cooling of the atmosphere in the surface layer (“nuclear winter”).
Sagan's latest book is The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark, 1996. Sagan died in Seattle (Washington) on December 20, 1996.
American astronomer Carl Sagan was a tireless researcher and popularizer of science. Sagan was actively involved in exobiology, studying the origin of life on Earth. A complete list of what he did would be prohibitively large, for he worked in different areas and was very fruitful everywhere. Although as a scientist Sagan was engaged in experimental planetary astronomy, his scientific works covered many related disciplines: from astrobiology to radio astronomy, and his range of interests was almost limitless.
Carl Edward Sagan was born on November 9, 1934 in New York. In 1954, he completed his basic education at the University of Chicago, then received bachelor's (1955) and master's degrees (1956) in physics, and in 1960 he became a doctor of astronomy and astrophysics. In 1960-62. worked at the Institute for Basic Research, University of California, Berkeley, 1962-68. He taught at Harvard University and worked at the Astrophysical Observatory of the Smithsonian Institution, and in 1968 he came to Cornell University, where since 1970 he has been a professor of astronomy and became director of the Planetary Research Laboratory.
Sagan was actively involved in exobiology, studying the origin of life on Earth. In 1963, he took part in experiments simulating the synthesis of organic molecules in the Earth's primordial atmosphere. Sagan's latest work is devoted to the matter of comets and organic aerosols on Saturn's moon Titan.
The problem of the origin of life on Earth and the possibility of searching for it in the Universe was of great interest to Sagan. He admitted that the ideas of the famous Soviet astrophysicist Joseph Samuilovich Shklovsky (1916-1985) and especially Shklovsky’s book “The Universe, Life, Mind” (1962) had a huge influence on him. A translation of Shklovsky's book into English was published in the USA under the title “Intelligent Life in the Universe” (1966). Carl Sagan became a co-author of this work. It was the first in a series of his popular science books and brought him wide fame.
Sagan’s first independent book was “The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective” (“Cosmic Connection”, New York: Doubleday, 1973), dedicated to the prospects for extraterrestrial activity of mankind. This book, written in the era of lunar expeditions and the preparation of the first messages to extraterrestrial civilizations, exudes the romance of space, the expectation of new brilliant discoveries and contacts with brothers in mind.
Sagan did not have mediocre books, and yet among what he created, the small book “Dragons of Eden” stands out. Speculations on the Evolution of the Human Brain" (1977, Russian translation 1986), which received the Pulitzer Prize in 1978. It was written in the wake of Sagan's November 1975 lecture at the University of Toronto in memory of the famous popularizer of science Jacob Bronowski. Discussing the biological aspects of brain evolution, Sagan takes the reader along the ascending ladder of evolution, discussing not only the morphology of the thinking part of organisms, but also the psychology of their behavior in nature and society.
Messages to extraterrestrial civilizations became very special works of Sagan and his colleagues. The first message was sent on March 3, 1972 from the Pioneer 10 interplanetary station outside the Solar System. In 1973, the same message was sent with Pioneer 11. Gold-plated aluminum plaques measuring 6 x 9 inches with an engraved design were attached to the side of the apparatus. The idea of the message belongs to Carl Sagan. He discussed the contents of the drawing with Frank Drake, a pioneer in the search for extraterrestrial radio messages, and the human figures were drawn by Sagan’s first wife, artist Linda Salzman-Sagan. From the birth of the idea to the ceremonial attachment of the sign to the board of the Pioneer, 3 weeks passed! The content of the picture is very simple. People are depicted against the background of a spacecraft silhouette for scale. Below is a diagram of the Solar System with the flight path of the Pioneer. At the top left, the hydrogen atom, the basic element of the Universe, is depicted twice. The circle denotes the orbit of the electron, and the stick with a dot indicates the direction of the spin (i.e., the axis of its own rotation) of the electron and proton. In the right picture, the spins of the particles coincide in direction, and in the left they are opposite. Every physicist (including extraterrestrial) knows that when spins rotate, a hydrogen atom emits a radio pulse with a frequency of 1420 MHz and, accordingly, a wavelength of 21 cm. This length and frequency (i.e., a measure of time) serve as measures of all other distances and times indicated in the figure. The most important message is encrypted in the “asterisk” to the left of the center. This is our “return address”: in the middle is the Sun, and the rays stretching from it indicate the directions and relative distances to the natural beacons of the Galaxy - radio pulsars. Each pulsar has its own period, which is written in binary code along the ray. All developed civilizations should know these pulsars. And knowing their coordinates, it is easy to find the position of the Sun in the Galaxy. By the way, the longest horizontal ray indicates the direction and distance to the center of the Galaxy. On board the Voyager 1 and 2 interplanetary probes, Carl Sagan and his colleagues placed short encyclopedias of the Earth - video disks with drawings, photographs, music, human speech, sounds of living and inanimate nature. It is possible that one day the main work of Sagan’s life will be the message he sent on Voyagers to other worlds.
As a solar system explorer, Sagan was prolific and constantly at the forefront. As a university teacher, he earned the love of thousands of students and trained dozens of active scientists. But he considered popularization work to be no less important, no less complex, and perhaps more responsible in his life. But he, of course, was not a popularizer in the usual sense of the word, but rather an educator or even an initiator of public interest in astronomy. A brilliant lecturer and organizer, Sagan was not afraid to discredit himself as a scientist by participating in amateur societies and speaking to any audience capable of listening and hearing. He was not afraid to ruin his scientific reputation by publishing popular articles and even a novel, and did not hide his literary face under a pseudonym. In total, he authored more than 600 scientific and popular articles, and authored, co-authored, or edited more than 20 books that will forever remain the message from Carl Sagan to our civilization.
After the Voyagers launched in 1977 to the giant planets and further beyond the solar system, Sagan and his friends published in the book “Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record” (“Whisper of the Earth”, 1978) the history of the preparation and contents of the video records sent to the stars.
The first radio message to extraterrestrial civilizations was sent on November 16, 1974 from the Arecibo Observatory using the world's largest radio telescope with a diameter of 305 m in the direction of the globular star cluster M 13 in the constellation Hercules. There are about a million stars similar to the Sun in this cluster, so the likelihood that the message will be received by someone is quite high. True, the signal will only get there after 25 thousand years. The message was sent at a frequency of 2380 MHz (wavelength 12.6 cm) and contains 1679 bits of information. It represents a frame 23 x 73. Of the two possible decomposition options - 23 lines and 73 lines - only the second leads to a clear picture. The figure of a man is visible on it (I wonder who, besides the man himself, can guess this?), Below it is a diagram of the Solar system with the third planet raised to highlight it. To the right of the figure is its height in wavelength units (14 x 12.6 cm = 176 cm). To the left of the figure is the Earth's population, approximately 4 billion people. Below is a diagram of the radio antenna. At the top of the message is a math lesson: a sequence of numbers from 1 to 10 in binary code. Then follows a rather strange sequence of numbers: 1, 6, 7, 8, and 15. They indicate the numbers of the most important chemical elements for us - hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen and phosphorus. Below them are 12 groups of five numbers each - these are the formulas of the molecules most important for life. And even lower is a diagram of a DNA molecule.
Sagan's book Cosmos (1980) became the largest-circulation popular science publication in English in history; it remained on the New York Times bestseller list for 70 weeks; PBS made an excellent 13-episode popular science film based on it with Sagan as the host, which became the most popular series in the history of state television: it was seen by 500 million viewers on the screens of 60 countries around the world. The book was published in Russian translation in 2004.
Carl Sagan's video project "Cosmos" became a new era in the popularization of astronomy and space exploration. Sagan’s team worked on the film for three years (1977-79), traveling to many countries that gave the world great philosophers, astronomers, and engineers. Unfortunately, they were not allowed into our Kaluga to film the episode about Tsiolkovsky.
Sagan performed a lot of public duties: in 1968 he was one of the founders, and in 1975-76. directed the Planetary Division of the American Astronomical Society; he stood at the cradle of the department's printed organ - the magazine Icarus, now a very prestigious international scientific publication dedicated to the study of the Solar system. From 1970 to 1979 Sagan was the editor-in-chief of this magazine. He was also president of the planetary science section of the American Geophysical Union and chaired the astronomical section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. And he was also one of the founders of the Planetary Society, which now has more than 100 thousand members and carries out not only educational, but also serious scientific activities in the study of planets and outer space, as well as financial support for large projects to search for radio signals from extraterrestrial civilizations.
Sagan's account of Mars exploration is that of a professional. Back in the 1960s, analyzing the results of radar measurements on Mars, Sagan suggested the existence of large differences in altitude on it (up to 16 km), which was soon confirmed by measurements from spacecraft. To explain seasonal changes in the contrast between dark and light areas, Sagan hypothesized that wind transported dust from the highlands to the valleys and back. He participated in experiments to study Venus (Mariner 2, 1962), Mars (Mariner 9, 1971; Viking 1 and 2, 1976) and giant planets (Voyager 1 and 2 ", 1977; "Galileo", 1989).
A quarter of a century after the publication of the book “Cosmos”, its translation was published in Russian. This is especially pleasant since we received the book for the author’s anniversary: in 2004, Sagan would have turned 70 years old.
Carl Sagan and his wife Ann Druyan together wrote the book "Comet" ("Comet", 1985) - a large, beautifully illustrated and very fascinating book about comets in general and, especially in detail and in depth, about Halley's Comet, which visited the vicinity of the Sun in 1986 G.
Together with his colleagues, Sagan studied the problem of the formation of the Solar system. Their numerical model, demonstrating the birth of planets through the process of accretion, was one of the first in the field. Some versions of the model turned out to be very similar to the real Solar system, while others, as we now understand, are similar to exoplanetary systems with “hot Jupiters.”
Sagan developed a greenhouse model of Venus' atmosphere that explained its high surface temperature. He made calculations of the evolution of the Martian climate, in particular, temperature changes during dust storms. From these calculations, the idea was born about the possibility of a nuclear winter on Earth: clouds of dust raised by explosions could block access to solar radiation to the surface of the planet, which would lead to a catastrophic drop in temperature. Sagan very seriously studied the possible consequences of nuclear war and its threat to the Earth's biosphere. He attracted public attention to this problem and, to a certain extent, stimulated détente and the beginning of the process of nuclear disarmament.
In 1985, Sagan’s science fiction novel “Contact” was published (Russian translation 1994). The content of the novel is rich in many realities of scientific work, many non-trivial, multi-layered ideas and unexpected forecasts. Sagan's novel is especially appealing to science buffs. In “Contact” we encounter not only elegant passages of an encyclopedic educated person, but also thoughts that are seditious for an astrophysicist, for example, about the possible creation of the Universe, not the birth! Moreover, the generally accepted idea of God has nothing to do with it. It’s just that Sagan’s materialism and his commitment to Darwin’s theory are consistent and almost limitless: developing thoughts about the evolution of the brain in the novel Contact, he quite naturally comes to the idea of superbeings capable of creating universes with predetermined properties. Previously, we would have called such an interpretation of the anthropic principle idealistic, but this is a completely consistent, albeit unrestrained (and partly naive) extrapolation of the evolutionary idea. Based on the novel, together with Ann Druyan, Sagan shot a feature film at Warner Brothers studio. The film was completed without him and was released in 1997.
In 1995, Sagan’s book “Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space” (1995) was published, which the New York Times noted as one of the best books of the year, and the audio cassette, based on this book by Sagan himself, received a Grammy Award and became one of the two best audio books of the year. Finally, his eighth bestseller was The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark (Random House, 1996). In the final years of his life, Sagan was worried about the same problems that befell our society in the same years: complete freedom of enterprise in the absence of a civic position and a common culture is fraught with regression in human intellectual development.
Astrophysicist Kip Thorne became interested in the problem of tunnels (“wormholes”) in space-time in 1985 after reading the manuscript of Carl Sagan’s novel Contact. Thorne figured out how to connect two black holes with a tunnel and stabilize it so that (while keeping the tunnel short) the holes could be moved apart to any distance and used to instantly move between two distant points in space.
For his scientific, educational and literary work, Sagan was awarded dozens of honorary degrees, medals and prizes. Among them are the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) “for great contribution to the use of science for the benefit of society” and the medal named after. K. E. Tsiolkovsky from the USSR Cosmonautics Federation. When it came to UFOs and other parascientific activities, Sagan was an uncompromising fighter.
Sagan's friends believe that he had the gift of foresight. His University of Chicago classmate Peter Vadervoort recalls that in March 1957, Carl Sagan bet a friend a box of chocolate bars that a man would land on the moon by 1970. This actually happened in July 1969, but Vadervoort does not know whether Karl received his chocolates. Sagan's ability to foresight is probably explained by the fact that he closely followed social processes. The meticulous reader will find especially many forecasts in the novel “Contact”. Surprisingly, the most incredible of them have already begun to come true.
The American Astronomical Society's Division of Planetary Science established the medal. Carl Sagan for his success in popularizing planetary science. Since 1998, the medal has been awarded to outstanding popularizers of science.
On the Mars that Sagan loved so much, there remains a memory of him: the Sagan Crater and, to the north of it, the Sagan Memorial Station at the landing site of the first rover, Sojourner, delivered to the planet on July 4, 1997 by the Mars Pathfinder probe "(NASA, USA).
Carl Sagan died on December 20, 1996. He was 62 years old. He died of pneumonia caused by his body's two-year battle with a bone marrow disease. This happened within the walls of the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, Washington, where in April 1995 Sagan received a bone marrow transplant for myelodysplasia, a preleukemic syndrome. After this operation, he returned to work, supervised graduate students and students, but in December 1996 he suddenly became worse... The disease tried to break Sagan for many years, but he never managed to grow old, forever remaining “young and dapper,” as Shklovsky remembered him. In a review of the book Contact, a Time journalist wrote: “When we have earthlings like Carl Sagan around, who needs aliens?” (“With terrestrials like Carl Sagan, who needs extras?”). Sagan is no longer there. But the science that he loved so much will always exist as long as there is intelligence in the Universe. Everyone who loves the sky and stars cares about his name. Sagan traveled a lot; He visited our country more than once. Many of us remember this charming and deep man. And they will remember for a long time
For many centuries, humanity has been dreaming of establishing contact with extraterrestrial civilization. But, perhaps, only one person was able to prove to the world that the search for extraterrestrial intelligence is a serious scientific direction, and not a kind of mania. His name was Carl Sagan, and he wrote and sent a real letter to the aliens. Even two.
Pioneer means first
In 1972-1973, two research vehicles, Pioneer 10 and Pioneer 11, were sent to Jupiter and Saturn. Their main task was to photograph gas giants from more or less close range. Both Pioneers successfully completed their task and set off to drift into deep space.
Along with Voyager 1, which launched a little later, the Pioneers became the first man-made vehicles to leave the solar system and end up in deep space. It was all planned.
That is why the “Pioneers” were chosen by the famous astronomer and science popularizer Carl Sagan to carry aluminum tablets - messages to distant worlds with brief information about people and the Earth.
If a distant alien intelligence ever “catch” any of the devices, even in a million years, it will be able to decipher the pictograms invented by Sagan.
The plaques depict the ship itself (for scale), as well as the figures of a man and a woman. Engraved next to it is a diagram of the Solar System and a diagram of the location of the Sun relative to the nearest 14 pulsars and the center of the Galaxy (a pulsar is a neutron star that is a source of some kind of radiation, usually radio or light).
The coordinates of the Sun relative to pulsars are unchanged, as are the positions of other stars, which means that aliens will be able to orient themselves. The plates also schematically depict a hydrogen atom, the wavelength of which is taken as a unit of measurement (for example, the height of a woman is indicated in them).
Carl Sagan died in 1996, long before the Pioneers left the solar system, but he knew full well that he would not live to see contact if it ever happened. He simply tried to look into the very, very distant future.
How to become an astronomer
Sagan was born in Brooklyn in 1934, the son of a Russian emigrant who married a girl from New York. The family lived poorly, especially amid the Great Depression.
Karl's parents were simple people without education, but his father wanted his son to grow up differently. He took little Karl to the Museum of Natural History, to the planetarium, and in 1939, the whole family visited the World's Fair in New York.
And soon after the war, the boy came across an issue of the famous almanac Astounding Science Fiction, which, coupled with the general hysteria of the time associated with UFOs, determined the worldview of the future scientist. Carl Sagan wanted to become an astrophysicist.
And he became one, and a brilliant one at that. University of Chicago, Astronomical Society, graduate school and dissertation on “The Physical Study of Planets” - by 1960, the newly minted Ph.D. in physics was considered one of the leading young astrophysicists in the country and showed great promise.
He worked at the University of California, at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, lectured at Harvard, Cornell University, and was a consultant at NASA (including when preparing astronauts for flights to the Moon).
During his work, Sagan made a number of astronomical and astrophysical discoveries - for example, he discovered high-temperature regions on Venus, explored Titan and Europa (the moons of Saturn and Jupiter). But he was known primarily for his research in the field of alien intelligence. And he became the only scientist whose research on this topic was recognized by the world scientific community.
Where do aliens live?
The question of alien intelligence has bothered Sagan since childhood. He was fond of science fiction (and in 1984 he himself wrote the sci-fi novel Contact, which was included in the golden fund of American science fiction), loved comics, and was passionately interested in the UFO mania of the 1950s. When astronomers Thomas Pearson and Jill Tarter founded the SETI Institute in the mid-1980s, the main goal of which was contact with alien races, Carl Sagan, along with fellow alien intelligence popularizer Frank Drake, became one of its leading figures. In fact, he himself was at the origins of the SETI program back in the 1970s.
It was Sagan who managed to get NASA funding and permission to install two gold-anodized aluminum plaques on the Pioneer probes.
A few years later, in 1977, Sagan headed the commission that prepared another record that went into the infinity of space on the Voyager series research vehicle. Moreover, this message was a record in a different sense of the word.
It contains the sounds of the Earth. Most of it is music (from Bach and Beethoven to Chuck Berry and Georgian choral singing), the smaller part is just human voices and various noises, sirens, hammering, birdsong and animal cries.
At the same time, the plate contains 116 encoded drawings and photographs reflecting life on Earth and the structure of the solar system. On the outside of the case, in addition to repeating the image from the Pioneer plates, there is a diagram of a device that allows you to extract information from the record.
Between sending tablets and records, in 1974, Carl Sagan and Frank Drake made another attempt to communicate with deep space by sending a radio signal there. It is now known as the Arecibo message (named after the source radio telescope).
The 169-second signal-message was encoded information about human civilization - numbers in the binary system, atomic numbers of basic elements, information about human DNA, humanity as a whole, the solar system and the telescope itself.
The constellation Hercules (globular star cluster M13) was chosen as the direction of the radio signal. Sagan understood perfectly well that the signal would take about 25 thousand years to reach its destination, and if it was received by aliens, successfully decrypted and answered, another 25 thousand years in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, he placed more hopes on this method of communication than on records, which he described in detail in the novel Contact.
By the way, this was the second attempt to send a radio signal into space. The words “peace”, “Lenin” and “USSR” were sent in 1962 from the Evpatoria Center for Long-Range Space Communications. Subsequently, many messages were sent to other worlds, but it is Sagan's message that remains the most famous and informative.
Another life
Carl Sagan miraculously combined himself as a serious scientist-researcher, a science fiction dreamer, and a popularizer. He gave fascinating lectures, understandable even to an unprepared person, and knew how to captivate anyone with his ideas and enthusiasm.
His works were a huge success. Book “Dragons of Eden. Speculations on the Evolution of the Human Brain" won the prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1978 and topped the New York Times bestseller list for several weeks, which is simply incredible for a non-fiction publication.
Sagan was interested in absolutely everything - astronomy and anthropology, psychology and biology, problems of artificial intelligence and the development of computer networks.
There was no branch of science that he would not pay attention to in his books, lectures, and stories. The most important thing about Sagan was his unconditional faith in humanity, its limitless possibilities and its inexhaustible resources.
An asteroid, the landing point of the first Mars rover, a number of awards in various branches of science, and even a special number characterizing the number of stars in the observable Universe (approximately equal to 70 x 10 21) are named after Sagan. The 1997 film based on the novel Contact won the Hugo Award for Best Science Fiction Film.
But the main monument to Carl Sagan is four records flying somewhere in endless space. They will fly for millions more years and may someday reach their goal. And then Carl Sagan's mission will be completed.
Tim SKOREYKO
