Carl Sagan

American astrophysicist, cosmologist and author (1934–1996)

  • Audience181K
  • Fame83.8
  • Momentum10.0
Source-basedFalling
181K youtube followers
  • Audience181K
  • Fame83.8
  • Momentum10.0
  • United States rank#99
  • Scientists rank#12
  • Wikipedia133.9K
Lived 1934–1996, aged 62United States
  • Biggest on YouTube
    181K
    @@carlsagandotcom
  • Wikipedia
    103 languages
    Cross-language footprint
  • Rank in United States
    #99
    Scientists
  • Era
    1934–1996
    Aged 62
  • Known for
    Contact
    1997
Summary
Updated 2026-06-19

He made the universe intimate. An astronomer who sent golden records into deep space, then turned around and narrated Cosmos to half a billion people, teaching a generation that we're all made of star-stuff and that skepticism is a form of wonder.

Biography

About

Carl Edward Sagan started as an assistant professor at Harvard before moving to Cornell, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies and worked on the Mariner, Viking, and Voyager programs. He published over 600 scientific papers while writing popular science books — The Dragons of Eden won the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction. In 1980 he co-wrote and narrated Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, a documentary series seen by at least 500 million people in 60 countries that won two Emmys and a Peabody; its companion book became the bestselling science book to date. He developed the Pionee…

Voice

In their own words

Sourced, dated quotes from Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan
said
We live in a society absolutely dependent on science and technology and yet have cleverly arranged things so that almost no one understands science and technology.
Bringing Science Down to Earth (1994), co-authored with Anne Kalosh, in Hemispheres (October 1994), p. 99; this is similar to statements
Carl Sagan
said
Humans — who enslave, castrate, experiment on, and fillet other animals — have had an understandable penchant for pretending animals do not feel pain.
"Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" (1992) (co-written with Ann Druyan)
Carl Sagan
said
The idea that God is an oversized white male with a flowing beard who sits in the sky and tallies the fall of every sparrow is ludicrous.
As quoted in "Scientists & Their Gods" in U.S. News & World Report Vol. 111 (1991)
Carl Sagan
said
Imagine, a room, awash in gasoline. And there are two implacable enemies in that room. One of them has 9,000 matches. The other has 7,000 matches.
Remarks on the nuclear arms race, on ABC News Viewpoint — "The Day After" (20 November 1983)
Carl Sagan
said
It is easy to create an interstellar radio message which can be recognized as emanating unambiguously from intelligent beings. A modulated signal (‘beep,’ ‘beep-beep,’ . . .
Smithsonian magazine, May 1978, pp. 43, 44. Quoted in Awake! magazine, 1978, 8/22.
Latest

On YouTube

By the numbers

Score breakdown

The six component signals behind the Fame score, and their ranks across the leaderboards.

Fame
Falling
83.8
Composite of search demand, mentions, audience & graph footprint.
Score components
Momentum10.0
Historical28.8
Source confidence75.0
Completeness85.0
Receipts

Sources

  • Wikipedia
    wikipedia · en.wikipedia.org
    High confidence
  • Wikidata
    wikidata · wikidata.org
    High confidence
  • Pantheon 2.0
    database · pantheon.world
    High confidence