Somewhere, something incredible is waiting to be known
These famous words were uttered by a man named Carl Sagan, an astronomer who took the world by storm. From his childhood days, Sagan exhibited traits that are attributed to the behaviours of scientists; inheriting analytical and intellectual ambitions from his mother and a thirst for knowledge about the world from his father.
The words ‘ scepticism’ and ‘wonder’ aptly describe the personality of Carl Sagan’s scientific endeavours, with him being an astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologists, professor, author and co-host of a television program- a track record so impressive that this seems like the combined professions of multiple people melded into one.
However, the most impressive thing about Carl Sagan was his infectious desire to spread wonder, gifting it to millions of children and adults worldwide in the form of the TV show ‘Cosmos’. In an age where space was barely known about, Carl Sagan pioneered a paradigm shift in making the universe more accessible to everybody, sharing with the population the beauty of interstellar space, that so often went unnoticed.
A lover of life, it’s no wonder that Sagan’s most impressive contributions towards science were in the search of extraterrestrial life, demonstrating quite magnificently how basic chemicals through radiation can be transformed into amino acids, the primary units of life. Even more beautifully, Mr Sagan compiled a golden disk full of memorabilia that represents earth; from sounds of laughter to a description of DNA, and packaged it into a satellite that has travelled further into space then we can imagine, so that if any life form ever stumbled across this little satellite in the vast expanse of space it would have an inkling as to how Earth is like.
Unfortunately, at the ripe age of 62, Mr Sagan passed away due to pneumonia and other bodily complications. However, his legacy still permeates through the membranes of space, inspiring generations of children to dare to dream about what lies beyond.
