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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Sagan worries about how societies of what type would handle the technology that could stop Earth-bound asteroids?
(a) Socialist.
(b) Liberal.
(c) Totalitarian.
(d) Progressive.

2. What does Sagan say the rings of Saturn composed of?
(a) Tiny ice worlds.
(b) Frozen methane clouds.
(c) Discs of stone.
(d) Chunks of destroyed planets.

3. Sagan suggests that humans could live and thrive around what unusual type of star?
(a) Pulsars.
(b) White dwarfs.
(c) Brown dwarfs.
(d) Nova nuclei.

4. Why does Sagan say that Mars is a more desirable target for human exploration than the moon?
(a) It has more resources.
(b) It has more to teach.
(c) It is more like Earth.
(d) It is more inhabitable.

5. What process would be critical to terraforming Mars?
(a) Ozone catalyzing.
(b) The Turing effect.
(c) Oxidation.
(d) The greenhouse cycle.

6. Sagan says that the dark matter that surrounds the Milky Way galaxy takes what shape?
(a) A sphere.
(b) A halo.
(c) A column.
(d) A disk.

7. What is the primary way that humans add carbon dioxide to the atmosphere?
(a) Burning fossil fuels.
(b) Drilling for natural gas and oil.
(c) Heavy industry byproducts.
(d) Carburetor emissions.

8. What type of government is Sagan most opposed to?
(a) Plutocracy.
(b) Theocracy.
(c) Fascism.
(d) Socialism.

9. What does Sagan believe about weapons of mass destruction?
(a) They must never used in anger.
(b) They are a necessary evil.
(c) They must be destroyed.
(d) They should be tightly controlled.

10. Sagan describes the "myth" that he believes should be created as centering around what?
(a) Encouragement.
(b) Science.
(c) Tolerance.
(d) Discovery.

11. At the time this book was written, how many Mars Observers had been flown successfully?
(a) Three.
(b) None.
(c) Five.
(d) One.

12. What planet in the solar system obviously suffers from a severe greenhouse gas effect?
(a) Saturn.
(b) Jupiter.
(c) Venus.
(d) Mars.

13. Which of the following is NOT one of the missions that observed Venus using radar telescopes?
(a) Magellan.
(b) Vesta.
(c) Venera.
(d) Pioneer.

14. What did Steven Hawking worry about with regard to black holes?
(a) That they could migrate into the solar system.
(b) That there were varied types of them.
(c) That they could tear space-time.
(d) That they were growing larger with time.

15. How far out does the solar corona die out?
(a) 1200 AU.
(b) 550 AU.
(c) 70 AU.
(d) 5 AU.

Short Answer Questions

1. What is the acronym for the project within SETI that Sagan worked on?

2. When did the belief that Venus was a "sister planet" to Earth become dispelled?

3. Where was NASA's first SETI facility located?

4. What was the name of the second mission that sent probes into the atmosphere of Venus?

5. Sagan says that the moon was once understood as a symbol of which of the following?

(see the answer keys)

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