Indeed, that’s how I first heard of Carl Sagan, having been following the science fiction awards for just a year or two, at my age then. Campbell Memorial Award – the only time that award went to a nonfiction book – in 1974. His first popular book, The Cosmic Connection (1973), won a special nonfiction John W. Sagan was an astronomer and planetary scientist, whose achievements included planning the first Mariner mission to Venus in the 1960s and the Viking landers on Mars in 1976. His landmark achievement was a 13-part TV series, Cosmos, broadcast in 1980, and its companion book of that same year. Simon and Schuster (432 pages, $18.95, Hardcover, October 1985)Ĭarl Sagan is known as the greatest science popularizer who was also a legitimate scientist of the late 20 th century.

Have you got a story to share? We want to hear all about it.First Edition: Simon and Schuster, October 1985, Jacket painting by Jon Lomberg Ryan said such occurrences happened 'pretty much daily', after his first experience when he was on a training mission off the cost of Virginia, USA. He said there would be flashing lights, strange crafts, and other things he couldn't explain - and in the end they were chalked up as UAPs, another name for UFOs. Lt Ryan Graves spoke out and shared his experiences with squadron VFA-11 - known as the Red Rippers - saying that whenever they went up in the air, they'd come into contact with something unexpected. Meanwhile, a former US Navy fighter pilot has spoken out about UFOs and said he saw them 'pretty much daily' while he was on duty. However, due to the enormous distances of space, it will take a while to get a reply - so it might be hard to get a conversation going.

'These spacecraft have communicated with the Deep Station Network (DSN) radio antennas in order to download scientific data and telemetry data,' read the study.

They found that some of the signals would have already reached their destination, and more will be arriving in the coming years.

They analysed signals sent from Earth to Voyager 1, Voyager 2, Pioneer 10, Pioneer 11 and New Horizons probes, and scientists said that life on nearby planets could have intercepted the transmission. Publishing their results in the paper titled ' The Breakthrough Listen Search for Intelligent Life: Nearby Stars' Close Encounters with the Brightest Earth Transmissions', the researchers explained their process. Howard Isaacson, from the University of California, spoke to PopSci and said: 'This is a famous idea from Carl Sagan, who used it as a plot theme in the movie Contact.' Do you think there's alien life out there? Let us know in the comments.

Carl sagan contact first edition