Tag: Carl Sagan

  • Contemplating the Cosmos: The Martian Inquisition

    “Why so many eager speculation and ardent fantasies about Martians, rather than, say, Saturnians or Plutonians? Because Mars seems, at first glance, very Earth-like. It is the nearest planet whose surface we can see. There are polar ice caps, drifting white clouds, raging dust storms, seasonally changing patterns on its red surface, even a twenty-four-hour…

  • Contemplating the Cosmos: Standing on the Shoreline

                I stand outside and look at the stars with wonder, noting the great complexity of systems and the great emptiness within the cosmos that I have read about. To think that I look with wonder at the same universe that is observed by great thinkers like the late Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking. Yet…