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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. 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.

2. 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.

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

4. When was Venus first explored by a space probe?
(a) 1950.
(b) 1961.
(c) 1980.
(d) 1970.

5. According to Sagan, what was the major advantage of the attitude of the government towards the Apollo project?
(a) New propulsion systems were developed.
(b) Computers advanced in power rapidly.
(c) There was plenty of funding for space.
(d) Rocket science progressed quickly.

Short Answer Questions

1. About how many channels does SETI search for signs of extraterrestrial communication on?

2. How does Sagan characterize most of the benefits gleaned from the space programs of the 60s and 70s?

3. About how large a percentage of the mass of the total universe does dark matter make up?

4. What is an astronomical unit?

5. When does Sagan predict that anti-matter will be mass-manufactured?

Short Essay Questions

1. What profit motivations exist in a manned mission to Mars?

2. What does Sagan conclude about the morality of terraforming and planetary colonization?

3. What resources does Sagan believe that carbon asteroids have that make them suitable for human habitation?

4. How could planetary tides pull a small planet apart?

5. What promising signs does Mars have for being host to life?

6. What major environmental catastrophes does Sagan warn against in Chapter 14, "Exploring Other Worlds and Protecting One"?

7. How is Venus different from Earth?

8. What is unusual about the surface of Venus?

9. How is Venus similar to Earth?

10. What is the purpose of SETI and how does it operate?

(see the answer keys)

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