Young Carl Sagan looked up at the night sky and wondered, “What are stars?” A question he seemed to ask over and over.
His mother took him to the library for the answer. At first, the librarian misunderstood Carl and gave him a book about the stars in Hollywood. But when he finally had the right book in his hands, it was magic. Carl learned that our Sun is a star. And all stars are suns, but they are so far away that they look like little points of light.
Carl searched the night sky for the planets in our solar system. He wished that he could walk on the surface of Mars, like his hero, John Carter, in the books by Edgar Rice Burroughs. And Carl wondered: did life exist outside our solar system? In our galaxy? In other galaxies?
Mars — The Red Planet
When Carl was four years old, his parents took him to the 1939 New York World’s Fair, not far from his Bensonhurst, Brooklyn home. There Carl saw wonders of the future: a mechanical man, a moving map, and even an early television. The possibilities for science and technology seemed endless to him.
The interior of an early television at the 1939 World’s Fair
When Carl grew up, he never stopped asking questions about space and its mysteries. He became a scientist with a PhD. in astronomy and astrophysics. He participated in the Voyager program that sent two unmanned spacecrafts on a journey to distant parts of our solar system. Voyager I and Voyager II sent back pictures and information to Earth that helped us learn more about the planets in our solar system.
Carl Sagan
Carl Sagan taught us about space with his many books and his PBS television series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. He told us that, “The total number of stars in the Universe is larger than all the grains of sand on all the beaches of the planet Earth.” This vastness inspired Carl’s curiosity as a child about planets and stars and galaxies that he later shared with all of us.
A wonderful book for children: Star Stuff: Carl Sagan and theMysteries of the Cosmos by Stephanie Roth Sisson tells the story of Carl Sagan full of curiosity and wonder who reached for the stars.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
Galileo Galilei, lived in Pisa home of the tall leaning tower — just right for an experiment challenging Greek philosopher Aristotle.
View of Pisa from the Leaning Tower of Pisa
Aristotle said that a heavier object falling from the same height, at the same time, would travel faster than a lighter object. Galileo disagreed. He said both objects would reach the ground about the same time.
It is said that at the top of the tower, Galileo dropped two spherical objects, one heavier than the other, perhaps a cannonball and a musketball. Both hit the ground at about the same time, disproving Aristotle’s law of gravity. Whether this actually occurred, or it was instead a thought experiment, Galileo wrote about it in his book, On Motion.
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
In Pisa, disproving Aristotle did not win fans for Galileo, and he was no longer asked to teach at the university there. But he wasn’t done challenging Aristotle. This time the challenge took place in the sky above.
The Dutch invented a telescope that made faraway objects appear closer. Galileo knew he could improve the Dutch telescope. When he did, he discovered that he could see the actual surface of the moon. It was not at all as Aristotle described it — completely smooth. Instead, the surface had peaks and valleys.
Galileo and his telescope
With his telescope, he also discovered the largest of Jupiter’s four moons. He published his discoveries in his book, Starry Messenger. Europeans learned about Earth’s moon and Jupiter’s moon, and Galileo became famous. He was invited by the Grand Duke of Tuscany to live in Florence and spend his days searching the sky for new discoveries.
What he discovered again challenged Aristotle. Aristotle said that our solar system was Earth centered. The sun and other planets revolved around the Earth.
What Galileo observed through his telescope made him realize that Aristotle was wrong. The sun was at the center of our solar system and the earth, like the other planets, revolved around it.
Unfortunately, disputing Aristotle again won him no fans. And finally landed him under house arrest for the rest of his life. But later scientists proved him right, the sun is the center of our solar system.
When I visited the Leaning Tower of Pisa, I was amazed that I had no sensation of leaning once inside the tower. Even at the top, it felt as if the tower stood perfectly straight.
If you like this post, then please consider sharing it and leaving a comment below. Thank you! Barbara Lowell, Children’s Author
