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.

Word & pdf e-Books included


- Wanderers - An Introduction
01 - You Are Here
02 - Aberations of Light
03 - The Great Demotions
04 - A Universe Not Made For Us
05 - Is There Intelligent Life On Earth
06 - The Triumph of Voyager
07 - Among the Moons of Saturn
08 - The First New Planet
09 - An American Ship at the Frontiers of the Solar System
10 - Sacred Black
11 - Evening and Morning Star
12 - The Ground Melts
13 - The Gift of Apollo
14 - Exploring Other Worlds and Protecting This One
15 - The Gates of the Wonder World
16 - Scaling Heaven
17 - Routine Interplanetary Violence
18 - The Marsh of Camerina
19 - Remaking the Planets
20 - Darkness
21 - To The Sky