Carl Edward Sagan (November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, astrobiologist, author, and highly successful popularizer of astronomy, astrophysics and other natural sciences. He pioneered exobiology and promoted the Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence (SETI). He is world-famous for writing popular science books and for co-writing and presenting the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage, which has been watched by more than 600 million people in over 60 countries