“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. …[E]very young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every “superstar,” every “supreme leader,” every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.”—Carl Sagan, Pale Blue Dot.
Poetic, isn’t it?
Who else could capture, in words, the beauty and frailty of our blue planet—probably the only planet brimming with life—other than Carl Sagan? His fine blend of science and human emotion turned the vast, intimidating universe into something personal, almost intimate; it feels like falling in love.
Today, on what would have been his 90th birthday, let us remember him not just as an astronomer but as the guide who brought the cosmos closer to our hearts.
It feels particularly interesting that, as we celebrate Sagan’s birthday, NASA reports receiving a radio signal from Voyager 1—now 15 billion miles away wandering in the interstellar space.
Who was Carl Sagan?
Allow me to properly introduce Doctor Carl Edward Sagan to you. Carl Sagan was an American astronomer, astrophysicist, science writer, TV host, and a science communicator.
Sagan was born on 9 November, 1934, in Brooklyn, New York City. As a child, he was spellbound by the idea that the twinkling stars overhead were distant suns.
While his parents were not scientists, they encouraged his relentless curiosity. It was this early wonder that led him to earn four degrees in physics, astronomy, and astrophysics at the University of Chicago.
Illustrated academic career
Sagan was a fellow at the University of California, Barkley.
He taught and conducted research at Harvard University. In 1968, he became an astronomy professor at Cornell University where he was also the director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. He spent 30 years at Cornell until his death in 1996.
He was the kind of professor you hoped to have, treating complex topics not as lectures, but as conversations filled with visual enthusiasm that is, indeed, contagious.
He was a pioneer in exobiology, positing that life beyond Earth was not only possible but worth seeking.
At NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, he was a key figure behind historic missions like Mariner 2’s voyage to Venus and the iconic Voyager programme, which still whispers to us from the edges of interstellar space. You can only imagine his joy if he knew how far the Voyagers have travelled, thanks to his boyish enthusiasm for cosmic exploration.
Books to read
Carl Sagan was a true pioneer of cosmic storytelling. He authored more than dozen a books and his most notable works often danced between the stars and our deepest questions as humans.
I’d pick Cosmos to start with as this was the first book in my high school years that introduced me to Carl Sagan.
In Cosmos, with an almost lyrical narrative, Sagan guides his readers through the history of life and space and our place within it. It accompanied his groundbreaking TV series of the same name that invites millions to appreciate the cosmic wonders.
His The Dragons of Eden, published in 1977, won him a Pulitzer; it explores human intelligence and evolution in a way that felt both deeply scientific and beautifully speculative.
Then came Pale Blue Dot, which urged humanity to reconsider our place in the cosmos, sparked by that tiny image of Earth taken by Voyager 1—a mere speck in an infinite void, and in Sagan’s words, “a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam”.
Sagan’s Contact, his only foray into fiction, intertwined human emotion with extraterrestrial discovery, imagining first contact not just as a scientific leap but as a story filled with hope, wonder and, of course, doubt.
In The Demon-Haunted World, he put critical thinking over blind belief, a call for reason wrapped in his signature voice: curious, cautious, but always inviting.
Cosmos: Sagan’s most profound work
“The cosmos is all that is or ever was or ever will be”— Sagan, in his usual deep voice, delivers the opening line of “Cosmos: A Personal Voyage”, his 13-part PBS series, aired in the 1980s that became the most popular science show enjoyed by millions around the world. Cosmos transformed the way people perceived the universe: easy and entertaining. A book was also produced under the same name to accompany the series.
Cosmos is visually stunning, brilliant in its concept and brave in its approach. It won him Emmy along with a Peabody award. and soon Sagan became a popular science icon and probably the face of science itself—America’s most popular scientist.
He reminded us that we are “star stuff,” connected to the very fabric of the cosmos, yet beautifully insignificant on this “pale blue dot.”
The legacy of Cosmos continues, largely thanks to Seth MacFarlane, the creator of Family Guy and a lifelong space enthusiast, and Ann Druyan, Sagan’s widow. Together, they have brought Cosmos back to TV, with a reboot named “Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey” that premiered on Fox in 2014. This one, too, is brilliant and a must watch for space buffs.
Narrated by the astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson, this new version aims to pass on the tools and methods of science to a new generation. “I’m not trying to be Carl Sagan,” Tyson said. “But I can be the best version of myself.” Tyson himself was deeply moved by Sagan’s Cosmos in his boyhood. And in the days to come, Sagan’s works would keep inspiring and influencing the new generation of scientists.
And his legacy lives on
Sagan passed away on 20 December 1996 at the age of 62, due to a rare bone marrow disease. Complications from surgeries resulted in pneumonia that caused his death.
His career was so diverse and eventful; he accomplished so much in a short period of time as if he knew he wouldn’t make it to an old age.
It’s been more than two decades that he is gone, but his legacy lives on in the arena of popular science. Sagan is truly irreplaceable.
Carl Sagan’s work was never just about the stars; it was about us—our hopes, our fears, our potential to dream beyond what we can see. He showed us that science isn’t just knowledge, but a deep, poetic exploration of the world and our place within it.