Astronomy current events question: water-rich exoplanets?

Astronomy 210L, fall semester 2016
Cuesta College, San Luis Obispo, CA

Students are assigned to read online articles on current astronomy events, and take a short current events quiz during the first 10 minutes of lab. (This motivates students to show up promptly to lab, as the time cut-off for the quiz is strictly enforced!)

Yann Alibert and Willy Benz, "Preferentially Earth-Sized Planets with Lots of Water" (October 24, 2016)
unibe.ch/news/media_news/media_relations_e/media_releases/2016_e/media_releases_2016/preferentially_earth_sized_planets_with_lots_of_water/index_eng.html

The majority of exoplanets orbiting red dwarf stars may have extremely deep oceans with icy cores, based on:
(A) greenhouse effect stability.
(B) water vapor absorption lines.
(C) computer simulations.
(D) radio interferometry.
(E) cloud layer reflectance.

Correct answer: (C)

Student responses
Sections 70178, 70186
(A) : 3 students
(B) : 6 students
(C) : 12 students
(D) : 3 students
(E) : 0 students