Pale Blue Dot
A Vision of the Human Future in Space
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4.6 • 109 Ratings
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- $6.99
Publisher Description
“Fascinating . . . memorable . . . revealing . . . perhaps the best of Carl Sagan’s books.”—The Washington Post Book World (front page review)
In Cosmos, the late astronomer Carl Sagan cast his gaze over the magnificent mystery of the Universe and made it accessible to millions of people around the world. Now in this stunning sequel, Carl Sagan completes his revolutionary journey through space and time.
Future generations will look back on our epoch as the time when the human race finally broke into a radically new frontier—space. In Pale Blue Dot, Sagan traces the spellbinding history of our launch into the cosmos and assesses the future that looms before us as we move out into our own solar system and on to distant galaxies beyond. The exploration and eventual settlement of other worlds is neither a fantasy nor luxury, insists Sagan, but rather a necessary condition for the survival of the human race.
“Takes readers far beyond Cosmos . . . Sagan sees humanity’s future in the stars.”—Chicago Tribune
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In a tour of our solar system, galaxy and beyond, Cornell astronomer Sagan meshes a history of astronomical discovery, a cogent brief for space exploration and an overview of life-from its origins in the oceans to humanity's first emergence to a projected future where humans ``terraform'' and settle other planets and asteroids, Earth having long been swallowed by the sun. Maintaining that such relocation is inevitable, the author further argues that planetary science is of practical utility, fostering an interdisciplinary approach to looming environmental catastrophes such as ``nuclear winter'' (lethal cooling of Earth after a nuclear war, a widely accepted prediction first calculated by Sagan in 1982). His exploration of our place in the universe is illustrated with photographs, relief maps and paintings, including high-resolution images made by Voyager 1 and 2, as well as photos taken by the Galileo spacecraft, the Hubble Space Telescope and satellites orbiting Earth, which show our planet as a pale blue dot. A worthy sequel to Sagan's Cosmos. Author tour.
Customer Reviews
Space, the next closest frontier.
Carl Sagan has given us a reason to believe in the promise of the universe’s bewildering potential for scenarios in which life can sustain. Sagan’s writing is timeless, prophetic, and poetic all at once. More than a science lesson, this book is a challenge to the collective of all mankind to reach higher; literally and metaphorically. At the very least you won’t look at science fiction the same again.
Every fantastical tale will read like a prophesy more than mere fiction. Not least because Sagan walks us through the foundations of our relationship with space to our place in time and then to our place in universe. We grimace along with him at the struggle between religion and science for control of the meaning of life. We wrestle with the pros and cons of staying here or going beyond where we can only imagine now.
Sagan provides us an exploratory education in the history of space exploration and our understanding of the cosmos while not making it a lecture. That lesson also reminds us that the scientific process is not without stumbles but always pointed towards the unerring truth. He gifts us with a prose so laden with praise for mankind’s ingenuity and the wonder of the cosmos that you are propelled to leap forth and volunteer for the exploratory missions to Mars. We lost a great one too soon.
Perspective
Carl Sagan is an American hero. Read this book if you're at all interested in the Cosmos, planetary exploration, the evolution of life, but if for nothing else than for the perspective it provides. Sagan's writing fundamentally changes the way I look at the world.
Good book
It was very eye opening.