Carl Sagan Biography • Classic Hero of Science Culture

Carl Sagan was the classic hero of science culture during the 70’s and 80’s. He was an astronomer, astrophysicist, cosmologist, astrobiologist, author and science educator. His extraordinary work on Alien intelligence and life form still amaze science enthusiasts. Carl’s most celebrated work was the educational science TV show Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

Carl Sagan, full name Carl Edward Sagan was born on November 9, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York. His Mother was Rachel Molly Gruber and Father was Samuel Sagan. He had a younger sister named Carol. During his childhood, he became interested in stars after reading some books at the library. After watching some futuristic visions at the world’s Fair of New York, he got more interested. He was also a fan of the 40’s sci-fi magazines. The stories and pictures of flying saucers fascinated him very much.

Carl finished high school at the age of 16. Then he continued to the University of Chicago. He completed his graduation in 1955 in physics. Then he got his Ph.D. in astronomy and astrophysics. After that, he worked at the University of California. During this period, he worked with the NASA team for the development of Mariner 2 robotic probe.

From 1960, Sagan started working at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory. He also worked at the Harvard University at that time. After some time, he became the director of Cornell University’s Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Then again, he helped NASA with some other space probes. One of them is Voyager, which was made to go beyond our solar system.

Sagan was also futurist. He proposed many plans for interstellar flights, terraforming planets etc. He was also a consultant for the famous futuristic movie 2001: A space Odyssey. Though a little number of scientist became a well-celebrated personality, Carl was a very popular one back then. He became even popular after publishing some of his book like The Dragons of Eden: Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective etc. His book ‘Contact’ was also made into a film in 1997.

Later in 1980’s, Carl Sagan started to film his legendary TV Series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. He wrote and hosted this astounding documentary himself. His another special documentary was Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (1994).

He married three times and divorced 2 times. He had 5 children. This legendary scientist died on December 20, 1996. He was suffering from myelodysplasia for two years. His grave is located at Lakeview Cemetery in Ithaca, New York.