Friday, May 13, 2011

Cosmos - A Tribute to Carl Sagan

Do you remember the classic television programme, Cosmos? It ran in the 1980s, and had a huge impact on the imagination of many, myself included.

It was a TV series that was monumental in its scope, emotional in its descriptions, unforgettable in its depiction of our Universe.

The television series, and in particular, its presenter, Carl Sagan , astronomer, astrophsysicist and Professor at Cornell University at the time, was instrumental in inspiring countless people of different generations throughout the world.

My all time favourite movie, Contact, was written and co- produced by Carl Sagan. Unfortunately he died just before the movie was due to be released, never having seen the movie. The movie was dedicated to him.

Many astronomers and astrophsyicists today have also stated Professor Carl Sagan as being influential in their career, including Professor Stephen Hawking and Professor Brian Cox.

I recently attended Uncaged Monkeys a very enjoyable night of science and intelligent humour (though anyone from Norfolk may not have found it quite as funny, with references to N.F.N. appearing during Adam Rutherford's part). It ended with a clip that I have included below. Known as the Pale Blue Dot, it was a photograph requested by Carl Sagan, taken by Voyager 1 at the end of its mission.

In the great man's words:

"The spacecraft was a long way from home. I thought it would be a good idea, just after Saturn, to have them take one last glance homeward. From Saturn, the Earth would appear too small for Voyager to make out any detail. Our planet would be just a point of light, a lonely pixel hardly distinguishable from the other points of light Voyager would see: nearby planets, far off suns. But precisely because of the obscurity of our world thus revealed, such a picture might be worth having."

"It had been well understood by the scientists and philosophers of classical antiquity that the Earth was a mere point in a vast, encompassing cosmos -- but no one had ever seen it as such. Here was our first chance, and perhaps also our last."  Thanks to torbad for this quote.

And here is the Pale Blue Dot clip, I hope Carl Sagan inspires and moves you as he did me.

1 comment:

  1. We Live on a spec! I wonder if Horton can hear us too! CH

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