· Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, (born October 19, 1910, Lahore, India [now in Pakistan]—died August 21, 1995, Chicago, Illinoi...
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Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, (born October 19, 1910, Lahore, India
[now in Pakistan]—died August 21, 1995, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.), Indian-born
American astrophysicist who, with William A. Fowler, won the 1983 Nobel Prize
for Physics for key discoveries that led to the currently accepted theory on
the later evolutionary stages of massive stars.
Chandrasekhar was the nephew of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman,
who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. Chandrasekhar was educated at
Presidency College, at the University of Madras, and at Trinity College,
Cambridge. From 1933 to 1936 he held a position at Trinity.
By the early 1930s, scientists had concluded that, after
converting all of their hydrogen to helium, stars lose energy and contract
under the influence of their own gravity. These stars, known as white dwarf
stars, contract to about the size of Earth, and the electrons and nuclei of
their constituent atoms are compressed to a state of extremely high density.
Chandrasekhar determined what is known as the Chandrasekhar limit—that a star
having a mass more than 1.44 times that of the Sun does not form a white dwarf
but instead continues to collapse, blows off its gaseous envelope in a
supernova explosion, and becomes a neutron star. An even more massive star
continues to collapse and becomes a black hole. These calculations contributed
to the eventual understanding of supernovas, neutron stars, and black holes.
Chandrasekhar came up with the idea for a limit on his voyage to England in
1930. However, his ideas met strong opposition, particularly from English
astronomer Arthur Eddington, and took years to be generally accepted.
Chandrasekhar joined the staff of the University of Chicago,
rising from assistant professor of astrophysics (1938) to Morton D. Hull distinguished
service professor of astrophysics (1952), and became a U.S. citizen in 1953. He
did important work on energy transfer by radiation in stellar atmospheres and
convection on the solar surface. He also attempted to develop the mathematical
theory of black holes, describing his work in The Mathematical Theory of Black
Holes (1983).
Chandrasekhar was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical
Society in 1953, the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1962, and the Copley
Medal of the Royal Society in 1984. His other books include An Introduction to
the Study of Stellar Structure (1939), Principles of Stellar Dynamics (1942),
Radiative Transfer (1950), Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability (1961),
Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science (1987), and Newton’s
Principia for the Common Reader (1995).
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