Godina izdanja: Ostalo
ISBN: Ostalo
Oblast: Astronomija
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

Carl Sagan is the name of one of the most famous scientists of the 20th century. He was an American astronomer, popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He was a pioneer in developing exobiology and the SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence) program.
He is very famous in the world for writing popular scientific books. One of his most famous (and which I enjoyed reading) is KOSMOS, after which the series of the same name was filmed. In his lifetime, he wrote more than 600 scientific papers and popular articles and was the author and co-author or editor of more than 20 scientific books. His most famous SF book is Contact.
He was born on November 9, 1934 in Brooklyn (New York). He comes from a Russian-Jewish family. He finished high school in New Jersey in 1951. He later studied at the University of Chicago, and received the title of Doctor of Science in 1960.
In 1971, he became a full professor at Cornell University, and from 1972 to 1981, he worked as assistant director of the Center for Radio and Space Research at Cornell University.
He worked as a consultant at NASA, then participated in the Apollo project before landing on the moon. He designed the message that was sent on a gold plate on Voyager 1 and later Voyager 2. It is a message that is supposed to tell potential extraterrestrial explorers something about us and our place in the Universe. In his book Cosmos, he described the Voyager mission in more detail.
He died on December 20, 1996 from a rare bone marrow disease.
By researching radio waves from Venus, he predicted that the surface temperature of this planet is 500 °C. He had also previously assumed that the surface of this planet was very hot and dry. With the help of the Mariner mission, on which he himself worked, his predictions were confirmed.
He was also among the first to hypothesize that Saturn`s moon Titan possessed liquid oceans and that Jupiter`s moon Europa harbored oceans of water beneath the surface. The oceans below Europa`s surface were later indirectly confirmed by the Galileo spacecraft.
He helped explain the composition of the atmospheres on Venus and Jupiter. He also discovered that the atmosphere on Venus is very dense and that the pressure rises all the way to the ground and is very high. He is also responsible for the discovery of seasonal changes on Mars.
And much more...
In 1994, he received the Public Welfare Medal, the highest award of the National Academy of Sciences for his contribution to science.
He was an ardent proponent of extraterrestrial life research. He urged scientists around the world to use radio telescopes to monitor signals that might be sent by extraterrestrial life forms. In this way, he was one of the initiators of the already mentioned SETI program. He is also one of the founders of the Planetary Society, which has over 100,000 members worldwide.
During the Cold War, Sagan was in charge of spreading awareness about the dangers of using nuclear weapons. He was very interested in planetology, and also in the origin of life and the scientific explanation of our place in the Universe.
He was on the boards of directors of many scientific associations in America and one of the greatest popularizers of science in the world.
He fought against astrology and its unscientific exposition, and also often spoke about the conflict between science and religion. One of his famous sayings (if we can call it that): If by the term `God` we mean a set of physical laws that govern the cosmos, then surely there is such a God. However, that God doesn`t fulfill us emotionally...it doesn`t make much sense to pray to the law of gravity. - from Richard Dawkins` book The God Delusion
In his book The Blue Dot in Infinity he wrote:
How is it possible that almost no religion has considered science and concluded: It is better than we thought! The cosmos is much bigger than our prophet said - grander, more refined, more elegant.
He was a free-spirited man for whom there were no boundaries in the Cosmos
(Downloaded from the net)
Carl Sagan je ime jednog od najpoznatijih naučnika 20-og veka. Bio je američki astronom, popularizator astronomije, astrofizike i ostalih prirodnih nauka. Bio je pionir u razvijanju egzobiologije i programa SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence).
U svetu je veoma poznat po pisanju naučno popularnih knjiga. Jedna od njegovih najpoznatijih (a koju sam uživao čitajući) je KOSMOS, po kojoj je snimljena i istoimena serija. U svom životu je napisao više od 600 naučnih radova i popularnih članaka i bio je autor i koautor ili urednik više od 20 naučnih knjiga. Njegova najpoznatija SF knjiga je Kontakt.
Rođen je 9. novembra 1934. godine u Bruklinu (Njujork). Potiče iz rusko-jevrejske porodice. Gimnaziju je završio u Nju Džersiju 1951. godine. Kasnije je studirao na Univerzitetu u Čikagu, a zvanje doktora nauka je stekao 1960. godine.
Godine 1971. je postao redovni profesor na Univerzitetu Korneli, a od 1972 do 1981. godine radio je kao pomoćnik direktora Centra za radio i svemirska istraživanja na Univerzitetu Korneli.
Radio je kao savetnik u NASI, zatim je učestvovao u projektu Apolo pre sletanja na Mesec. On je osmislio poruku koja je poslata na zlatnoj ploči na letelici Vojadžer 1, a kasnije i 2. To je poruka koja bi trebala da kaže potencijalnim vanzemaljskim nalazačima nešto o nama i našem mestu u Svemiru. U svojoj knjizi Kosmos je opisao detaljnije misiju Vojadžra.
Umro je 20. decembra 1996. godine od retke bolesti koštane srži.
Istraživanjem radio talasa sa Venere je predvideo da je površinska temperatura ove planete 500 °C. Takođe je pre toga pretpostavio da je površina ove planete veoma topla i suva. Pomoću misije Mariner, na kojoj je i sam radio, njegova predviđanja su potvrđena.
Takođe je među prvima pretpostavio da Saturnov mesec Titan poseduje tečne okeane i da Jupiterov satelit Evropa ispod površine krije okeane vode. Okeane ispod površine Evrope je kasnije indirektno potvrdila letelica Galilej.
Pomogao je da se objasni sastav atmosfera na Veneri i Jupiteru. Otkrio je i da je atmosfera na Veneri veoma gusta i da pritisak raste sve do tla i da je veoma visok. Saslužan je i za otkriće sezonskih promena na Marsu.
I još puno toga…
On je 1994. godine dobio Public Welfare Medal, najviše priznanje Nacionalne Akademije Nauka za doprinos nauci.
Bio vatreni zagovornik u istraživanjima vanzemaljskog života. On je pozvao naučnike širom sveta da pomoću radio teleskopa prate signale koje mogu slati venzemaljski oblici života. Na taj način je bio jedan od inicijatora već pomenutog programa SETI. Jedan je i od osnivača Planetarnog društva (Planetary Society) koje broji preko 100 000 članova širom sveta.
Tokom Hladnog rata Sagan je bio zadužen za širenje svesti o opasnostima upotrebe nuklearnog oružija. Veoma se zanimao za planetologiju, a i za poreklo života i naučno objašnjenje našeg mesta u Svemiru.
Bio je u upravnim odborima mnogih naučnih uduženja u Americi i jedan od najvećih popularizatora nauke na svetu.
Borio se protiv astrologije i njenog nenaučnog izlaganja, a takođe je često govorio o sukobu nauke i religije. Jedna od njegovih poznatih izreka (ako je možemo tako nazvati): Ako pod pojmom “Bog” mislimo na skup fizičkih zakona koji upravljaju kosmosom, onda zasigurno postoji takav Bog. Međutim, taj Bog nas emotivno ne ispunjava…nema previše smisla moliti se zakonu gravitacije. – iz knjige Ričarda Dokinsa Zabluda o Bogu
U svojoj knjizi Plava tačka u beskraju je napisao:
Kako je moguće da gotovo nijedna religija nije razmotrila nauku i zaključila: To je bolje nego što smo mislili! Kosmos je mnogo veći nego što je rekao naš prorok – veličanstveniji, istančaniji, otmeniji.
Bio je jedan slobodouman čovek za koga nisu postojale granice u Kosmosu
(Preuzeto sa neta)

Anchor books, Garden city, New York 1973.
Softcovet, 274 page
Conndition: covers in very good, text block exscellent