Word: sagan
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...glaciers, sands whipped by winds of hundreds of miles an hour and other tantalizing features that point to previously unsuspected geological, chemical and perhaps biological processes on the red planet. Indeed, the flight of the windmill-shaped spacecraft drastically changed the image of Mars. Says Cornell Astronomer Carl Sagan, one of Mariner's principal scientists: "We have accumulated more information about Mars from the single mission of Mariner than from all previous observations in history...
...poisonous brew of such substances as hydrochloric acid, ammonium chloride or salts of mercury. In fact, the composition of these clouds is still a prime question for scientists. Only in the upper layers does the atmosphere even vaguely resemble that of the earth, leading Astronomer Carl Sagan to speculate that these upper layers might harbor primitive Ping-Pong-ball-sized floating organisms...
When Astronomers Frank Drake and Carl Sagan conceived the idea of attaching a drawing of a nude man and woman to the Pioneer 10 spacecraft, their motive was purely scientific. They wanted any extraterrestrial beings who might some day intercept the craft to know what kind of race had sent it. Since the March launch, however, the two scientists have discovered that the drawing is more than a message to outer space. "We didn't realize it," says Drake, "but it turns out to be a cleverly disguised Rorschach inkblot test...
...Rorschach, people reveal their emotional conflicts by describing what they think they see in indeterminate shapes. Similarly, critics of the Pioneer 10 drawing saw considerably more than Drake and Sagan intended to convey, thus suggesting something about their own inner preoccupations...
...group complained that the figures were "obviously" white; another claimed they were "obviously" black. The truth, says Artist Linda Sagan (Carl's wife), is that she intended to show the man as Negro and the woman as Oriental, thus portraying diverse racial characteristics...