What Carl Sagan Didn't Know


A Terrible Question

On December 9, 1994, I had the pleasure of attending Dr. Sagan's lecture at the University of Houston, Clear Lake. He gave a very interesting talk on mankind and extraterrestials. Afterwards, I had the opportunity to ask him a question:



ME: Dr. Sagan, could you please comment on the possible implications of the recent Hubble observations of a giant planet orbiting Proxima Centauri?
SAGAN: Is there?
DR. BLACK (of the Lunar and Planetary Institute): Well, actually, that information was kind of leaked.

To Dr. Sagan's credit, it appears that the Planet information has only been published on Mosaic, but once verified, it will probably appear in the Publications of the Astrophysics Society of the Pacific.

Paul O'Brien tpoiii@rice.edu










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