Carl Sagan Day celebrates the life and work of the American astronomer, author and science communicator, born on November 9, 1934 in Brooklyn, New York. Few people have done more to make the universe feel exciting.
Who was Carl Sagan?
Sagan was a planetary scientist at Cornell University who worked on NASA missions, and helped put together the Golden Record carried by the Voyager spacecraft. He reached a huge audience with his 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage and books such as Pale Blue Dot and the novel Contact.
The first Carl Sagan Day was organized in Florida in 2009, around what would have been his 75th birthday. Sagan died in 1996, but events are still held each year by astronomy clubs and science groups.
How to celebrate Carl Sagan Day
- Watch an episode of Cosmos
- Take a telescope or binoculars outside on a clear night
- Look up the Pale Blue Dot photograph of Earth, and read Sagan's famous words about it
- Bake an apple pie from scratch, after first inventing the universe