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December 20, 1996

December 20, 1996, is the date on which Carl Sagan died. In his most famous book to popularize science, Cosmos (1980), Sagan has recourse to a feline metaphor to explain black holes: 

"Now the cosmic Cheshire cat has vanished; only its gravitational grin remains.
When the gravity is sufficiently high, nothing, not even light, can get out. ..."

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