How many pounds does the Milky Way weigh?

How far flung out is the farthest star?

Where do comets play when they fly away?

Does the Moon’s dark side shine at night on Mars?

What freeze-dried things hide in Saturn’s wide rings?

Is it true Neptune’s a blue balloon?

How much stinging steam do her mean clouds teem

On a greenhouse-hot Venus afternoon?

He posed a billion questions though a billion more remain

Our universe Carl Sagan strove his whole life to explain

The cosmos reveals little as it steals along its way

While the knowledge he was seeking it conceals another day

Will time unbuckle the asteroid belt?

Does white light sleep down a deep black hole?

Is when Pluto shakes called a plutoquake? 

Are there more third rocks on the cosmic roll?

He posed a billion questions though a billion more remain

Our universe Carl Sagan strove his whole life to explain

The cosmos reveals little as it steals along its way

While the knowledge he was seeking it conceals another day

He posed a billion questions though a billion more remain

Our universe Carl Sagan strove his whole life to explain

The cosmos reveals little as it steals along its way

While the knowledge he was seeking it conceals another day

"Billions and billions of stars!"

Carl Sagan

(November 9, 1934 – December 20, 1996)