If we’re lucky, this image of Carl Sagan may soon be adorning letters from America. The Sagan Appreciation Society has launched a petition to create a stamp honouring the astronomer and this is one of the proposed designs.

“As Carl was America’s science populariser, it seems fitting that he be bestowed with a populist kind of honour,” say Patrick Fish, Sagan Appreciation Society founder. “Carl wasn’t just an astronomer, physicist and the world’s pre-eminent science teacher. He was arguably the first exo-biologist, one of the fathers of global-warming awareness, a peacemaker, and a brilliant author who could make science sound like poetry.”

Ann Druyan, Sagan’s widow, says in the Ithaca Journal, “Carl was an avid stamp collector as a boy, and we treasure the albums he made then. They’re filled with his handwritten notes in the margins — perhaps the earliest evidence of his passion for the diversity of Earth’s cultures. So this particular tribute to Carl would have held special significance for him, as it does for me.”

The society plans to submit the petition and designs to the US Postal Service’s Citizens’ Stamp Advisory Committee, which recommends about 25 new subjects a year for commemorative stamps.