■ Meet the beautiful visuals and poetic message of the movie Contact in Carl Sagan's original work.

Does extraterrestrial life exist? On October 23rd, the U.S. unmanned space probe entered Mars' orbit.
The Odyssey rover is expected to uncover the mysteries of Mars by exploring the existence of water and life on Mars.
Also, on November 27, NASA used the Hubble Space Telescope to determine the atmosphere of a planet outside our solar system, located in the Pegasus Nebula, 150 light-years away, for the first time, taking humanity a step closer to finding extraterrestrial life.

The film Contact (directed by Robert Zemeckis and starring Jodie Foster), which tells the story of encountering extraterrestrial life through shortwave signals from space, was released in 1997 and was widely loved for its calming visuals and moving emotions.
The movie Contact is an adaptation of astronomer Carl Sagan's 1985 science fiction novel of the same name. Although Carl Sagan actively participated in the production of the film, he sadly passed away in 1996 without being able to see the finished product.
This book, Contact (2 volumes), is a complete translation of the original work, which combines Carl Sagan's astronomical knowledge and rich imagination.


Through this work, Carl Sagan presents another possibility for our encounter with extraterrestrial life.
In other words, it shows the possibility and future of linking millions of Internet-connected PCs and radio telescopes together to search for signals from extraterrestrial life.
Since Dr. Robert Drake of Cornell University in the United States first adopted the radio telescope exploration method in 1960, interest in shortwave radio waves from outer space has rapidly increased, and now the whole world is connected through SETI@Home.

Readers who have seen the movie will already know, but here is a brief summary of the book's plot:
Although there are some differences in detail from the film, the storyline is almost identical because the film was created with the participation of the original author.

Ellie (Jodie Foster), a girl who lost her father at a young age, listens to shortwave radio every night, hoping to hear from someone unknown.
One day, while Ellie, who has become an astrophysicist, is receiving shortwave signals from space at an observatory in the desert, she receives a mysterious message from the planet Vega.
The reception continues and eventually the meaning of the message is deciphered, drawing worldwide attention.
And the contents of the decrypted message are revealed to be blueprints for a means of transportation (mechanical device) that can travel back and forth across the galaxy.


The world is filled with hope and chaos due to the blueprint, but the interstellar transport device is completed according to the blueprint.
Finally, Ellie rides the device through several wormholes to the beautiful planet of Weaver Girl, where she meets and talks to the image of her father.
But the 18-hour extraterrestrial journey she experiences in a device that crashes into the ocean just seconds after launch becomes hers alone.


This work exhibits the following two distinctive features.
First, it is not simply a fantasy-level science fiction, but rather a full-fledged hard science fiction for scientists that is highly feasible.
Second, through this book, Carl Sagan projects himself onto the protagonist, Ellie, and shows a broad perspective that encompasses the world, the universe, humanity, science, religion, and other diverse fields.
Therefore, rather than viewing this book as simple science fiction, it can also be seen as an autobiographical novel containing the life, knowledge, and worldview of a great astronomer.


While the film starring Jodie Foster focused on lyrical emotion and visual beauty, this work adds a novelistic fun to that emotion, offering a thrilling page-turning experience while also providing a lesson that corrects distorted views of science, scientists, and extraterrestrial life.