Every year –just on December 20– my Cape jasmine blossoms on my home balcony at the top of my tower building, joining so the innumerable elegies on the Internet glorifying Carl Sagan [Carl Edward Sagan, the David Duncan Professor of Astronomy and Space Sciences and director of the Laboratory for Planetary Studies at Cornell University, and NASA hero of all times, died on Dec. 20, 1996, in Seattle, Wash., after a two-year battle with a bone marrow disease. He was just 62].
Since he cheered me up in my youth by his epic astronomy adventures and by his achievements on the science of the heavens, especially concerning our Solar System, I honor him today showing this tender photo published by Ann Druyan, wonderful person (and for me delightful name), revered by the very Carl Sagan in his books.
Also I offer this YouTube video on the last chapter of Cosmos –Who Speaks For Earth?– showing Carl Sagan mature, healthy and lovely lively.
Finally, I join the Web elegies by this Cosmos' excerpt:
The Last Perfect Day
Billions of years from now, there will be a last perfect day on Earth. Thereafter the Sun will slowly become red and distended, presiding over an Earth sweltering even at the poles. The Arctic and Antarctic icecaps will melt, flooding the coasts of the world. The high oceanic temperatures will release water vapor into the air, increasing cloudiness, shielding the Earth from sunlight and delaying the end a little. But solar evolution is inexorable. Eventually the oceans will boil, the atmosphere will evaporate away to space and a catastrophe of the most immense proportions imaginable will overtake our planet.
Carl Sagan, en su bello libro Cosmos, en el capítulo Las Vidas de las Estrellas, presenta cuatro pinturas de su amigo Adolf Schaller, preciosas y a la vez inquietantes, con un texto que me ha obsesionado siempre y que lo he sentido como una metáfora de mi propia vida.
Dice así:
Dentro de varios miles de millones de años, habrá un último día perfecto (cuadro 1). Entonces, durante un período de millones de años, el Sol se expandirá, la Tierra se calentará, muchas formas vivas se extinguirán y el borde del mar retrocederá (cuadro 2). Los océanos se evaporarán rápidamente (cuadro 3) y la atmósfera escapará al espacio. A medida que el Sol evolucione para convertirse en una gigante roja (cuadro 4), la Tierra se convertirá en un lugar seco, estéril y sin aire. Al final el Sol casi llenará el cielo y quizá se trague a la Tierra.
This photo, shot by me through a telescope at the Mamalluca Astronomical Observatory, is my intimate homage to Stella Maris and Carl Sagan today.
