Ann Druyan - Cosmos: Possible Worlds

Artists vision of a possible world, over 500 light-years away. Kepler-186f was the first validated Earthlike exoplanet, discovered in 2014.

| ALSO BY ANN DRUYAN |

A Famous Broken Heart

The Varieties of Scientific Experience (Editor)

WITH CARL SAGAN

Billions & Billions: Thoughts on Life and Death at the Brink of the Millennium

The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark

Murmurs of Earth: The Voyager Interstellar Record

Comet

Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors: A Search for Who We Are

The Milky Ways Carina Nebula, a stellar nursery 7,500 light-years away.

Published by National Geographic Partners, LLC

1145 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20036

Copyright 2020 Ann Druyan. All rights reserved. Reproduction of the whole or any part of the contents without written permission from the publisher is prohibited.

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC and Yellow Border Design are trademarks of the National Geographic Society, used under license.

ISBN9781426219085

ISBN9781426220685 (special sales edition)

Ebook ISBN9781426219092

Acknowledgments and Permissions

: lyrics from No Woman No Cry (written by Vincent Ford, performed by Bob Marley) 1974 Fifty-Six Hope Road Music Ltd & Primary Wave/Blue Mountain Music. Copyright Renewed. All Rights Reserved. Used by Permission. All rights administered by Primary Wave/Blue Mountain Music.

.

: from Anna Akhmatova [Here the most beautiful girls fight] in Complete Poems of Anna Akhmatova, translated by Judith Hemschemeyer, edited and introduced by Roberta Reeder. Copyright 1989, 1992, 1997 by Judith Hemschemeyer. Reprinted with the permission of Canongate Books Ltd.

: excerpt from Carl Sagan, Brocas Brain, published by Random House, 1974. Copyright 1974 by Carl Sagan. Copyright 2006 by Democritus Properties, LLC.

: When Spring Returns, from Fernando Pessoa & Co., by Fernando Pessoa, translation copyright 1998 by Richard Zenith. Used by permission of Grove/Atlantic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

: When Spring Returns from Fernando Pessoa & Co., by Fernando Pessoa, translation copyright 1998 by Richard Zenith. Used by permission of SSL/Sterling Lord Literistic, Inc. Any third party use of this material, outside of this publication, is prohibited.

: grateful acknowledgment is made to the following publishers for permission to reprint portions of the Encyclopedia Galactica from Carl Sagan, Cosmos. New York: Random House, 1980; London: Little, Brown Book Group Ltd., 1980. Copyright 1980 by Carl Sagan Productions, Inc. Copyright 2006 by Druyan-Sagan Associates, Inc.

Since 1888, the National Geographic Society has funded more than 13,000 research, exploration, and preservation projects around the world. National Geographic Partners distributes a portion of the funds it receives from your purchase to National Geographic Society to support programs including the conservation of animals and their habitats.

Get closer to National Geographic explorers and photographers, and connect with our global community. Join us today at nationalgeographic.com/join

For rights or permissions inquiries, please contact National Geographic Books Subsidiary Rights:

Interior design: Melissa Farris

v5.4

a

For

Sarah,

Zoe,

Norah,

and

Helena

as you set sail for the stars

A Victorian art form made possible by the microscope. This one includes diatoms (microscopic algae with silicon dioxide skeletons) and butterfly scales.

CONTENTS

| THE COSMIC CALENDAR |

1 YEAR = 13.82 billion years 1 MONTH = 1.136 billion years 1 WEEK = 265 million years 1 DAY = 37.86 million years 1 HOUR = 1.578 million years 1 MINUTE = 26,294 years 1 SECOND = 438.23 years

The whole sweep of time, from the big bang to this very moment, at a glance: the highlights of cosmic evolution compressed into a single calendar year. That tiny glint in the lower right-hand corner represents all of human existence.

| WORLDS FAIR 2039 |

Imagine a 2039 Worlds Fair, symbol of optimism and the wonders of a future world.

Visitors pour in, awed by the five pavilions surrounding a vast elliptical reflecting pool.

| WORLDS FAIR 2039 |

In the fairs Pavilion of Possible Worlds walk the spiral arms of our galaxy to encounter other civilizations of the Milky Way and assess their chances of survival.

A contemporary poster highlights the Trylon and Perisphere, iconic symbols of the 1939 New York Worlds Fair.

| PROLOGUE |

I was a child in a time of hope. I wanted to be a scientist from

my earliest school days. The crystallizing moment came

when I first caught on that the stars are mighty suns, when it

first dawned on me how staggeringly far away they must be

to appear as mere points of light in the sky. Im not sure

I even knew the meaning of the word science then, but

I wanted somehow to immerse myself in all that grandeur.

I was gripped by the splendor of the Universe, transfixed

by the prospect of understanding how things really work,

of helping to uncover deep mysteries, of exploring new

worldsmaybe even literally. It has been my good fortune to

have had that dream in part fulfilled. For me,

the romance of science remains as appealing and new as it

was on that day, more than half a century ago, when

I was shown the wonders of the 1939 Worlds Fair.