Contact: A Novel

Carl Sagan’s Contact is rooted in the real-world scientific endeavor of the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI). Pioneered in 1960 by radio astronomer Frank Drake, SETI operates on the principle that an advanced civilization would likely use radio waves for interstellar communication. SETI scientists use large radio telescopes to scan the sky, searching for narrow-band, artificial signals that stand out from natural cosmic noise. As an author, Carl Sagan was also a prominent advocate for SETI and co-founded The Planetary Society in 1980 to help fund the search.

The novel therefore is a fictional exploration of his deepest professional passion, dramatizing both the methods and the potential implications of making contact with an alien species. The protagonist, Ellie Arroway, works at facilities like the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, a real-world hub for radio astronomy. Built in 1964, the radio telescope at Arecibo played a key role in mid-century astronomical discovery. For example, in 1964, Arecibo astronomers discovered that Mercury’s rotation period is 59 days, and the first evidence of neutron stars was found in 1968. In the context of SETI, the observatory broadcast the Arecibo message in 1974, a binary code radio signal sent to potential extraterrestrial life. Though the radio telescope collapsed in 2020, the observatory itself is still in use.

While “Project Argus” is purely fictional, its setting at the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array (VLA) in southern New Mexico is real. Since its construction in 1970, the VLA has been the site of astronomical inquiry and discovery, and scientists working there have observed phenomena like black holes, magnetic filaments, and the expansion of the universe. Since Contact’s publication, the VLA has played a key role in advancing the field. In 1989, it received radio communications from the Voyager 2 spacecraft, which is a discovery craft. Sagan played a part in this mission, recording golden records that are carried by Voyagers 1 and 2 that are meant to show the best of mankind and Earth to any potential extraterrestrial lifeform who encounters it.

The plot of the novel, which hinges on detecting a sequence of prime numbers, also reflects an actual SETI strategy of looking for a signal that is unambiguously artificial. Sagan uses this realistic foundation to explore what he considers to be a profoundly important scientific problem, and because he uses the character of Ellie to articulate his own thoughts and stances on the issue, his extensive expertise in the field of astronomy lends the narrative a sense of authenticity and plausibility.