🧠 GRE Exam Prep

Passage: The discovery of exoplanets has revolutionized astrophysics, moving the field beyond theoretical speculation to empirical observation. Yet, current detection methods are largely biased towards massive planets orbiting close to their stars, making Earth-like planets in habitable zones much harder to identify. It can be inferred from the passage that:

A Earth-like exoplanets are rare in habitable zones.
B Early exoplanet research was entirely theoretical.
C The actual number of exoplanets is likely higher than currently detected.
D Future detection methods will focus solely on Earth-like planets.

✓ Correct Answer: Option C

If current detection methods are biased towards specific types of planets (massive, close-orbiting) and struggle to find others (Earth-like), it logically follows that many other types of planets exist but remain undetected.

Related GRE Exam Prep Questions