The history of Mars - Carl Sagan's 1977 Christmas Lectures 3/6
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 ก.ย. 2024
- In the third of his Christmas lectures, Carl Sagan explores the mystery of the Red Planet.
Watch all six lectures from this series here: • The Planets - Carl Sag...
Watch our newest Christmas lectures here: • Royal Institution Chri...
This lecture was recorded at the Ri on 3 December 1977.
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Cold, arid, and tens of millions of miles away from Earth, Mars has intrigued scientists for centuries. The existence of liquid on its surface was confirmed by NASA’s flyby mission, Mariner 4, in 1965, but the question of whether life exists on our neighbouring planet has remained a subject of much speculation.
In the 19th and 20th centuries, observers using only the naked eye and a telescope saw features on Mars which they interpreted as evidence for a dry but Earth-like climate, for vegetation which grew and decayed with the seasons, and for a great Martian canal network designed by a heroic but dying race of hydraulic engineers.
From its rocky craters to its polar ice caps, Carl describes our understanding of the geology and chemistry of Mars, revealing the discovery of its two moons, Phobos and Deimos, in 1877, and the bizarre one-time suggestion that these moons were artificial satellites launched by an ancient but not extinct Martian civilisation.
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CARL SAGAN'S 1977 CHRISTMAS LECTURES:
What exists beyond Earth? Over six Lectures presented in 1977, American astronomer and cosmologist Carl Sagan explores the vast expanse of space that surrounds the third planet from the Sun.
Life on Earth
Where at first we could only discern the size of our planet and some knowledge of its atmosphere and configuration, the evolution of planetary exploration has revealed not only intricate details of Earth’s climate and geology, but a multitude of stars and planets besides our own.
Beginning with a closer look at the world we inhabit, Carl explores of the diversity of life on our own planet and the building blocks behind it, before questioning whether the same organic chemistry is occurring on planets in the outer solar system.
The Red Planet
In Lecture three onwards, Carl takes a closer look at our neighbouring planet, Mars. From early interpretations of terrestrial life on its surface to the surprising discoveries made by NASA’s Viking Program, the Red Planet has become the focus of efforts to discern whether intelligent life exists elsewhere in the universe.
When Carl delivered his Lectures in the late 1970s, NASA had only just begun its Voyager program to the furthest planets in our solar system and no extra-solar planets were known to exist. Now, over three decades later, astronomers are looking at planets that lie beyond our solar system to ask the very same question we pondered over Mars: is there life out there?
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ABOUT THE CHRISTMAS LECTURES:
Set up by Michael Faraday when organised education for children was scarce, the Royal Institution CHRISTMAS LECTURES established an exciting new way of presenting science to young people. World-famous scientists have given the Lectures, including Nobel Prize winners William and Lawrence Bragg, Sir David Attenborough, Carl Sagan and Dame Nancy Rothwell.
First broadcast in 1936, the CHRISTMAS LECTURES is the oldest science television series. They have been broadcast every year since 1966 on the BBC and in later years on Channel Five, Channel Four and more4. In 2010, the Lectures returned to BBC Four, and this year were shown on the 26th, 27th and 28th of December. Find out more about the lectures here: www.rigb.org/c...
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Imagine this lecture now. We've learned so much about the history and geology of Mars since 1977!
Then again, not really
I wish so much that Carl Sagan had lived to see how much more we know about Mars-and how much there still is to learn! Can you imagine how thrilled he would have been with Ingenuity and Perseverance, especially the prospect of bringing Mars samples back to Earth!
Unmatched presence and composure
Sagan was so good.
is
.
Sagan will outlast you
The best. NDT is a huge fan too but he's about 1/100 as easy to listen to.
So great, Carl Sagan was so great.
It's so amazing we look back to 1977 and he looks back to c19th. I half expected to see clips from back in the 19th century for a minute. Isn't technology amazing. This was before I was born but I am still enjoying carl
THANKS TO CARL SAGAN !
One of my most regretted moments in my life is when, as a kid in the mid-80s, I was browsing through TV channels and wound up watching this strange tall man with an odd way of speaking. I remember thinking it must be some kind of new age hippie nonsense (not that I was old enough to know what that even meant), and changed the channel.
I recognized it about a decade ago: it was a rerun of Cosmos, and the man was Carl Sagan. What a sad thing for me to miss out on.
Even the original Cosmos should be mandatory viewing in school, but how much better off would we all be if we all had a Cosmos growing up...
It's on DVD my friend, no need to miss it forever.
If we all had to do or like the same thing would be rather boring. You didn't like as a kid. So you liked other things. That was your individual identity. At some point you discovered you liked it. Now can capture the awe and wonder. It would be no different then now learning to play an instrument today. Yea I remember watching Cosmos on WTTW. I watching these lectures to see if I remember watching them then. And if you did not know. He wrote the Book Contact which the movie Contact was based.
The master of cadence 😍 Silk in my ears 👍
Oh wow, what a treat 😊
An amazing scientist ✨️
hes so adorable i cant, love everything about him
Very interesting. I didnt even know about the photos from venus 😮
Si Carl Sagan viviera, seguro se sorprenderia de cuanto hemos aprendido del planeta rojo. Sigue siendo un mundo exotico y misterioso.
Am reading about this in “13 Journeys Through Space and Time” which is wonderful. 📖
wonderful...
BTW, a recent hypothesis is that those "canals" were actually the blood vessels on the viewer's own retina being reflected by the telescope.
35:16 - Sagan does not disappoint. 😄
Mr. Sagan was one of our greatest American Treasures. He would have been an excellent candidate for President but he wasn’t stupid. Lol
39:17 - I had no idea James Acaster was even born in 1977, but there he is, bottom right.
Would love to have been there to see Dr Sagan, one of the great scientists. R.i.p. Dr Carl Sagan.
35:13 boy if this lil kid knew how brilliant this joke is right here! 😂😂😂 Seriously, he couldn’t say this today in 2024.
Years on - this is the business 😎☺️🙇
I wish I could tell Carl Sagan about lucky imaging nowadays.
22:30 Carl Sagan, father of astronomy and science, in 1977 saying "it is not impossible nor ridiculous that there could have been a civilization on Mars".
Now in 2024, Neil DeGrasse Tyson et cetera, laughing, giggling and making fun of anyone who suggests signs of a past civilization on Mars.
Food for thought. Have we become smarter as a species, or dumber?