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November 16, 2012

Carl Sagan teaching kids about the universe

  This from the Kepler Mission guys that posted about it: "Sagan visits his old elementary school and tells the children: "By the time that you people are as old as I am, we should know for all the nearest stars whether they have planets going around them or not. We might know dozens or even hundreds of other planetary systems and see if they are like our own... or very different.. or if no other planets are going around the stars at all... That will hapen in your lifetime and will be the first time in the history of the world that anybody found out REALLY if there are planets around the other stars." He was right (though the techniques he describes are not those that have been most commonly employed as of yet). Many of us working on the Kepler team were about the same age as those children at the time of the filming. And now, we are about Carl's age at the time of the filming. It's our wish that the children of today will be inspired by Kepler's discoveries and the prospect that in their lifetime, we should know of a world that could harbor life -- that one day soon we might know of world that DOES harbor life. Have a great weekend everyone!" (via onegoodmove)