The Book
The Cosmos. Infinitely intriguing, scientists have been writing about its marvels- sometimes accurately, sometimes not- for years. You’ve probably heard of or (atleast tried to) read a Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking. While that is a great work in itself, for the casual reader it may sometimes be too technical for those not inclined towards science. (None of those people whom I recommended this book ever got past the introductory chapter)
I always new there was a farting, barfing moon of Jupiter called Io, but I never realized how amazing a thing it was, scientifically and from an exploratory standpoint
That is where Carl Sagan’s Cosmos comes in: Mainly centering around astronomy, the book leaves a deep imprint in the reader’s heart -- the imprint of the spirit of scientific inquiry. Anyone who reads the book is moved by the wonders of the universe and begins to look at it from a fresh perspective. In fact, I bet that a large number of astronomers when asked what prompted them to pursue astronomy as a career, will point to this book and say, “that thing”.
To satiate the natural curiosity that arises after you’re done and to fill yourself up on the new developments in the field (some of the mysteries that Sagan talks about have been ‘solved’), these links may help:
The Follow Up
1. Mars Exploration:
The most prominent thing that stuck out to me when I was reading the book was in Chapter 5 “Blues for Red Planet”. Sagan describes the Viking missions to Mars, and wonders aloud about the possibly of a motile rover being sent. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alive to witness when NASA achieved just that via first the Pathfinder and then the twin rovers Spirit and Opportunity.
- If you haven’t done so already, visit the NASA rovers homepage at http://marsrovers.jpl.nasa.gov/. Though its been a few years now, going through their trail, pictures (breathtaking panoramas, by the way) , videos and experiments is still a fascinating experience (especially as Opportunity is still active). Also see the Pathfinder mission.
- The Phoenix lander in 2008 probed the possibility of life on mars. Go to http://phoenix.lpl.arizona.edu/ and check out the mission summary, images and published papers related to the mission.
[Above: A video history of the last 5 years of the rovers Spirit and Opportunity]
2. Similarly, new ground has been broken in the exploration of Venus:
- The Magellan spacecraft mapped in near-photographic quality the features on Mars.
- The Venus Express and recently failed Akatsuki missions explored (or intended to explore) Venus’s climate amongst other features
A Perspective View of Venus taken by the Magellan spacecraft
3. Abiogenesis:
Sagan talks about the origins of life and the Miller-Urey experiment.
- A recent idea that has entered popular scientific belief and is being considered is that life may have come in the form of organic matter on comets or asteroids.
- New ground has also been broken in the original Miller-Urey expiremental line: (link: ScienceDaily). This FAQ is also helpful
4. Climate Change:
Sagan was way ahead of his time in predicting Global Warming, but he also proposed the reverse case scenario, one of a runaway albedo effect causing global cooling. It is now widely accepted that that scenario is unlikely.
5. Extrasolar Planets:
The book talks about extrasolar planets (link: Wikipedia) being a definite possibility,but at that time none had been discovered. It was only in 1992 that the first such body had been detected. See this Listverse list on the 15 most fascinating such planets.
6. Quasars:
There is now scientific consensus that a quasar (link: NASA GSFC) is a compact region in the center of a massive galaxy surrounding its central supermassive black hole, while in the Cosmos, it was only one of the many possible hypotheses.
7. The Nature of the Milky Way:
Recent evidence suggests that the Milky way is a barred spiral galaxy as opposed to a normal one.
Most of these were apparent to me after reading the book, but I had to go back to it to find some of the others. This post is a tribute to Carl Sagan, the brilliant astronomer who sparked our interest in the stars once more.
Suggested Further Reading:
- The Physics of the Impossible, by Michio Kaku
- A Brief History of Time, Stephen Hawking
