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This quiz consists of 5 multiple choice and 5 short answer questions through Chapter 7, Among the Moons of Saturn, Chapter 8, The First New Planet.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What hazard threatened the Voyager craft in Sagan's plan to take a distant picture of Earth?
(a) Cosmic rays.
(b) Space dust.
(c) Micrometeorites.
(d) The Sun's rays.

2. What scientist is credited with making the first discoveries that caused problems for the geocentric theory?
(a) Ptolemy.
(b) Copernicus.
(c) Galileo.
(d) Kelper.

3. What role does Sagan suggest that religion has played in the development of science?
(a) Religion informs and guides scientific development.
(b) Religion has aided science in significant ways.
(c) Science progressed in spite of religion.
(d) Religiously-minded individuals often become scientists.

4. Which of the following is one of the "great demotions" that Sagan cites?
(a) There are planets orbiting other stars.
(b) Light and magnetism are the same thing.
(c) There may have been life on Mars.
(d) The Earth is 6 billion years old.

5. In the analogy Sagan makes in Chapter 5 the reader is asked to imagine they are seeing Earth from what perspective?
(a) Very close up.
(b) From a distorted frame of reference.
(c) For the first time.
(d) From an immense distance.

Short Answer Questions

1. At the time of the writing of this book, what is the farthest planet that humans had reached through the use of exploratory probes?

2. The "great demotions" are changes in thinking about the status of what?

3. What is notable about the stars in Sagan's distant picture of the Earth?

4. The Voyager probes found large amounts of what element on Titan?

5. In what way is Titan's cold atmosphere an advantage for the formation of life?

(see the answer key)

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