单选题

Passage V<br>An astronomy class is given the following facts about stellar evolution.<br>1. A star’s evolution can be divided into 3 stages: premain sequence (pre-MS), main sequence (MS), and post-main sequence (post-MS).<br>2. Gravity causes part of a cloud of gas and dust to collapse and heat up, creating a pre-MS star. The star’s hot dust and gas emit its energy.<br>3. A pre-MS star becomes an MS star when the star produces the majority of its energy by fusing hydrogen nuclei (protons) at its center to make helium nuclei.<br>4. An MS star becomes a post-MS star when the star expands in volume and produces the majority of its energy by fusing hydrogen to make helium in a shell surrounding its center.<br>5. The more massive a star, the more rapidly the star passes through each of the 3 stages of its evolution.Two students discuss the evolution of the Algol system—Algol A, a 3.6-solar-mass MS star; Algol B, a 0.8-solar-mass post-MS star; and Algol C, a 1.7-solar-mass MS star. (One solar mass = the Sun’s mass.) The 3 stars orbit a mutual center of mass, with Algol A and Algol B much closer to each other and to the center of mass than to Algol C.<br>Student 1<br>The 3 stars of the Algol system formed at the same time from the same cloud of gas and dust. Algol B, originally the most massive of the 3 stars, became a post-MS star and expanded in volume while Algol A remained an MS star. Because the matter in the outer parts of Algol B was more strongly attracted to Algol A than to the matter in the inner parts of Algol B, this matter flowed from Algol B to Algol A, and, over time, Algol A became more massive than Algol B.<br>Student 2<br>Algol B was not part of the original Algol system (Algol A and Algol C). Algol B and the original Algol system formed in different clouds of gas and dust at different times and moved in 2 different but intersecting orbits around the center of the galaxy. During a particular orbit,Algol B encountered the original Algol system at the intersection of the 2 orbits and became part of the Algol system.Algol B became a post-MS star while Algol A and Algol C remained MS stars. Algol B never lost mass to Algol A. Algol B was always less massive than Algol A.<br>Based on Student 2’s discussion, Algol B is part of the present Algol system because of which of the following forces exerted on Algol B by the original Algol system?

A. Electric force
B. Magnetic force
C. Gravitational force
D. Nuclear force

火星搜题