“Except for hydrogen, all the atoms that make each of us up—the iron in our blood, the calcium in our bones, the carbon in our brains—were manufactured in red giant stars thousands of light-years away in space and billions of years ago in time. We are, as I like to say, starstuff.”

American astronomer and science communicator of the mid-to-late 20th century, Carl Sagan made complex cosmic concepts accessible to the public through his books and television series. He championed scientific skepticism and the search for extraterrestrial life, blending rigor with poetic clarity to inspire wonder about humanity’s place in the universe.