After calls with foreign leaders, rap sessions with lawmakers, and long classified briefings with advisers, President Jimmy Carter would often escape to the roof of the White House.
There his son Jeffrey had set up a tracking telescope, Carter said in his book, A Full Life. Feeling the weight of the world, he would gaze at the stars and contemplate his place among them.
“I recall one winter night going to the White House roof to study the Orion nebulae, but we could barely see the stars, their images so paled by city lights,” he waxed in a poem.
That particular evening, on Dec. 18, 1977, the astrophysicist Carl Sagan joined him. They had just visited the U.S. Naval Observatory next to the vice president’s mansion, where they discussed all things space — planets, stars, black holes, and astrobiology. Carter himself was a man of science: He studied engineering in college and did graduate work in nuclear physics.
“It was a welcome diversion from earthly concerns,” he wrote in a thank-you note to Sagan.
Carter, who died on Dec. 29, 2024 at 100, was an avid astronomer, with a profound curiosity for the cosmos, a part of his story that isn’t well-known. It began when he was a lab assistant to an astronomy teacher his freshman year in college, and it continued as he learned celestial navigation in the U.S. Navy, where he rose to the rank of lieutenant. One Christmas while on a ship with his family, he asked the captain if the crew had a sextant on board, a tool for measuring the angle between the horizon and an object in the sky. The captain proceeded to show him one, he said, displayed like a museum artifact in a glass case.
But politics often eclipsed the former president’s appreciation for space. Though his first budget funded the program that became NASA‘s Hubble Space Telescope, Carter was maligned for not supporting human spaceflight in the vein of the Apollo program, said Steven Hochman, former special assistant to the president at the Carter Center. He was a supporter of robotic exploration and research that could benefit people’s lives, but when it came to the exorbitant cost of sending astronauts into deep space, he preferred spending on domestic concerns.
“NASA, I believe, has not given him the credit he deserves,” Hochman told Mashable. “I believe it is because he was critical of the Space Shuttle program and didn’t provide funding for future missions to the moon or Mars.”
For years political adversaries ridiculed Carter for having a tinfoil hat, stemming from an incident in 1969 that later circulated in the press. After a Lions Club meeting in Leary, Georgia, Carter and a few other men spotted something strange moving in the sky: a luminous object, first blue then red, the apparent size and brightness of the moon. About four years later, Carter reported the unidentified flying object to the National Investigations Committee on Aerial Phenomena and the International UFO Bureau in Oklahoma.
President Jimmy Carter places the Congressional Space Medal around NASA astronaut Neil Armstrong’s neck.
Credit: UPI / Bettmann Archive / Getty Images
Though Carter never claimed to have spotted aliens or a flying saucer — to him this was literally an unknown object in the air — people snickered and mistook his UFO sighting as such. Skeptics, who likely knew nothing of Carter’s astronomy background, suggested he had merely seen Venus.
“It was not Venus,” Carter said in a 2007 interview on “The Skeptics’ Guide to the Universe” podcast.
In fact, his UFO sighting had taken on such mythic proportions, some had wondered whether it was the reason Carter wanted NASA to investigate UFOs in 1977. Despite a White House request expressing a need to address the general UFO “public relations problem,” NASA had, surprisingly, declined.
The Japanese space agency JAXA’s Akatsuki mission, aka Planet-C or Venus Climate Orbiter, studies the planet’s atmosphere from orbit with an ultraviolet imager. Sulfur dioxide causes some clouds to look dark because of sunlight absorption.
Credit: ISAS / JAXA
The subject prompted The Journal of Scientific Exploration to invite Richard C. Henry, the agency’s deputy director of astrophysics during Carter’s administration, to write an essay about it more than a decade later. Henry, a semi-retired professor at Johns Hopkins University today, came to no definitive conclusions on why NASA rebuffed the White House. But, in a postscript, Henry said he sent his draft to Carter before publication in 1988.
Mashable Light Speed
“The most important point that you could clarify, if you will, is whether you yourself were behind (the UFO panel proposal) letter of July 21, 1977, to NASA,” Henry wrote.
Beside the sentence, Carter jotted his reply in one word: No.
NASA leaders brief President Jimmy Carter before the first Space Shuttle launch at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida.
Credit: NASA
Yet buried within Henry’s paper was a small window into Carter’s passion for astronomy. In November 1977, the president and his son sent a message to NASA headquarters asking to borrow a seven-inch Questar telescope. Given that there were no telescopes at headquarters — just paper, Henry said — he tried to hunt one down at another NASA campus.
It turned out Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama, had one.
“By great luck, a NASA plane was flying from Huntsville to Washington the next day ([Science adviser Frank] Press was emphatic that the President wanted no special flights or other waste of taxpayer dollars),” Henry wrote.
President Jimmy Carter sits alone on a bench at Camp David during the Egyptian-Israeli peace talks on Sept. 9, 1978.
Credit: White House / CNP / Getty Images
The NASA official and his wife, Rita Mahon, picked up the Questar at Washington National Airport and promptly took it to the White House. They then unpacked the telescope from a large wooden crate and showed the Carters how to set it up on the Truman balcony overlooking the South Lawn. The night was cloudy, but they trained on the moon.
The president then proceeded to take the telescope with him to Camp David near Thurmont, Maryland, on Nov. 23, 1977, where he and his family spent Thanksgiving, according to his daily diary. He returned it about a week later.
One has to wonder if Carter brought a telescope with him again just 10 months later, when he invited Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin to join him at the retreat. The renowned talks would result in the Camp David Accords, which later earned the Middle East leaders a Nobel Peace Prize.
U.S. President Jimmy Carter, Egyptian President Mohamed Anwar al-Sadat, and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin share a three-way handshake after signing the Camp David Accords.
Credit: Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images
There’s an amusing irony to the false urban legend that Carter believed he was visited by aliens: He is, after all, the most likely person to make humanity’s introduction to extraterrestrials.
Some 15.5 billion miles away from Earth, hurtling through the cold, uncharted abyss, is NASA’s Voyager 1 probe. It is the farthest spacecraft from home, having left the solar system in 2012. Soaring through interstellar space at 38,000 mph, it carries a gold-plated record produced by Sagan, with a melange of sounds from the planet.
Crickets. Wind. Greetings in 55 languages, from Akkadian to Wu. A mother kissing her child. These and a letter from Carter are among the recordings on the disk.
A technician puts the golden record on the Voyager spacecraft in a clean room before launch.
Credit: Space Frontiers / Archive Photos / Getty Images
The odds of making contact with aliens, if they exist, are slight, if not insurmountable. Galaxies are spinning away from each other into the infinite unknown. The speed at which space is expanding far outpaces our technology to overcome it. It’s as if the universe were contrived to keep its inhabitants apart.
But should some other intelligent life forms encounter Voyager — or Voyager 2, which carries a duplicate record — thousands or even billions of years into the future, they will discover Carter’s words:
“This is a present from a small distant world, a token of our sounds, our science, our images, our music, our thoughts and our feelings,” he wrote. “We are attempting to survive our time so we may live into yours. We hope someday, having solved the problems we face, to join a community of galactic civilizations. This record represents our hope and our determination and our goodwill in a vast and awesome universe.”
A copy of the statement President Jimmy Carter included on the golden records for the Voyager spacecraft.
Credit: NASA
Many knew Carter’s intimate relationship with his faith. He grew up Southern Baptist, the son of a farmer in the boomtown of Plains, Georgia. He referred to himself as a born-again Christian. Long after his presidency, he attended regular church services and taught Sunday School.
But how his evangelical beliefs squared with his thoughts on the universe aren’t clear. He wrote in a poem, titled “Considering the Void:”
When I behold the charm / of evening skies, their lulling endurance; / the patterns of stars with names / of bears and dogs, a swan, a virgin; / other planets that our Voyager showed / were like and so unlike our own, / with all their moons, / bright discs, weird rings, and cratered faces; / comets with their streaming tails / bent by pressure from our sun; / the skyscape of our Milky Way / holding in its shimmering disc /an infinity of suns / (or say a thousand billion); / knowing there are holes of darkness / gulping mass and even light, / knowing that this galaxy of ours / is one of multitudes / in what we call the heavens, / it troubles me. It troubles me.
What exactly was haunting Carter? Was he expressing a collision of faith and science in what lies beyond? An existential crisis of never knowing the big picture?
Perhaps, as he wished, humankind will survive this time so that we may live to know more.
pengemar, slot! Pernah mendengar semboyan “slot gaco” jika tidak? bersiaplah hati, konsep jatuh slot gaco sama merupakan ini. slots sering mesin kasih yang win Yup slot-slot. dibilang, sebagai ini bisa jagoannya buat bawa pulang cuan. any way cemana
tekniknya, nemuin sih slot demo benar Tenang yang Bro? beri tenang, kita saja di tempat ini Gaming terpopuler
waktu sekarang satu-satunya di yaitu akan Indonesia menyediakan return on Investment terbaik Daftar di
di {di|hanya di|dengan}:
Informasi mengenai KING SLOT, Segera Daftar Bersama king selot terbaik dan terpercaya no satu di Indonesia. Boleh mendaftar melalui sini king slot serta memberikan hasil kembali yang paling tinggi saat sekarang ini hanyalah KING SLOT atau Raja slot paling gacor, gilak dan gaco saat sekarang di Indonesia melalui program return tinggi di kingselot serta pg king slot
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kdwapp.com
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jebswagstore.com
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama demoslotgacor.pro
slot demo gacor
slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun demo slot gacor
akun demo slot gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun slot demo gacor
akun slot demo gacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun demo slot pragmatic
akun demo slot pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun slot demo pragmatic
akun slot demo pragmatic permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun slot demo
akun slot demo permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
akun demo slot
akun demo slot permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
situs slot terbaru
situs slot terbaru permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
slot terbaru
slot terbaru permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsslotterbaru.net
sewaapartemen permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sewaapartemen.org
pipapvc permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pipapvc.org
pialaeropa2028 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pialaeropa2028.net
pialadunia2026 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pialadunia2026.asia
bahanbangunan permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bahanbangunan.org
gemini999 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama gemini999.org
havana888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama havana888.net
indonesia88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama indonesia88.info
inspirasi permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama inspirasi.info
jokiwin88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama jokiwin88.org
oli88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama oli88.org
situs88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situs88.asia
transfermarkt88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama transfermarkt88.com
rossi46 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama rossi46.com
pecco88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pecco88.com
pecco permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pecco.asia
pangkas permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pangkas.net
facebook88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama facebook88.com
depo88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama depo88.asia
bajaringan88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bajaringan88.com
baja ringan permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bajaringan.asia
tradingview88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tradingview88.com
trading88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama trading88.org
tokopedia88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tokopedia88.net
kualifikasi permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kualifikasi.net
grosirboneka permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama grosirboneka.net
situsgacor permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama situsgacor.news
prediksi88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama prediksi88.biz
keramat88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama keramat88.biz
cnn88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama cnn88.asia
cnbc88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama cnbc88.com
bloomberg88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama bloomberg88.com
antibocor88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama antibocor88.com
buku88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama buku88.org
dukun88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama dukun88.info
indodax88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama indodax88.net
investing88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama investing88.net
makanan88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama makanan88.net
pakaian88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pakaian88.com
rambo88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama rambo88.info
santet88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama santet88.net
sekolah88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sekolah88.org
uno88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama uno88.info
starlink88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama starlink88.org
solitaire88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama solitaire88.net
roblox88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama roblox88.org
pubg88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pubg88.info
motogp88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama motogp88.net
motivasi88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama motivasi88.com
mobilelegends88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama mobilelegends88.com
ludoking permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ludoking.asia
kucing88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kucing88.asia
kucing permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kucing.info
klasmen88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama klasmen88.com
imdb88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama imdb88.net
higgsdomino permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama higgsdomino.biz
gmail88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama gmail88.org
gmail88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama gmail88.net
chess88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama chess88.info
callofduty88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama callofduty88.com
semen88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama semen88.com
seluler88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama seluler88.com
ram88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ram88.net
pasir88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pasir88.asia
papan88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama papan88.info
komputer88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama komputer88.net
kayu88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kayu88.info
kabel88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama kabel88.net
gaming88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama gaming88.asia
games88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama games88.info
beton88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama beton88.lat
teknis88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama teknis88.com
sarana88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sarana88.info
arena88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama arena88.asia
viral888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama viral888.asia
usdt88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama usdt88.net
uang88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama uang88.asia
twitter88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama twitter88.asia
tahanlama88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama tahanlama88.com
suka88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama suka88.biz
sekali88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama sekali88.org
plafonpvc permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama plafonpvc.net
pinjol88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pinjol88.asia
mpox88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama mpox88.com
daun88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama daun88.asia
wordpress88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama wordpress88.net
whatsapp88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama whatsapp88.net
wechat88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama wechat88.net
telegram88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama telegram88.org
super888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama super888.asia
skype88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama skype88.com
racing88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama racing88.asia
pupuk88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pupuk88.net
petani888 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama petani888.org
pabrik88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama pabrik88.asia
organik88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama organik88.com
online77 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama online77.info
ojek88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama ojek88.info
nostalgia88 permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama nostalgia88.com
michat permainan paling top dan garansi imbal balik hasil besar bersama michat.info
