In 1968 Sagan became head of Cornell University’s Laboratory for Planetary Studies, and soon worked with NASA to choose landing sites on Mars for the Viking probes. The early ‘60s found him at the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, where his work centered on the physical conditions of planets, notably Venus and Jupiter. After completing a PhD in astronomy and astrophysics in four years, Carl landed at the University of California-Berkeley. A not-so-typical teenager, Sagan graduated from high school at the age of 16, and entered the University of Chicago to study physics in 1955. Probably the best-known scientist in the world in the 1970s and 1980s, Carl Edward Sagan was born in Brooklyn in November 1934 AD. Yet it was his effort to bring the cosmos to civilization which made him a celebrity. He assembled the physical messages sent into deep space: the Pioneer plaque and Voyager recording.

Sagan, among other things, helped discover the high surface temperature of Venus and demonstrated the production of amino acids from common chemicals by radiation (thus proving extraterrestrial life possible). Grants 3,000 Production towards Space Race project construction.Ĭarl Sagan was many things – astronomer, astrophysicist, astrobiologist – but it was his efforts as a popularizer of modern science that made him famous. Carl Sagan is an Information Era Great Scientist in Civilization VI.

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