On March 12, 1930, Indian physicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar made a groundbreaking discovery that would later earn him the Nobel Prize in Physics. Chandrasekhar, who was only 19 years old at the time, was traveling by ship from India to England to begin his graduate studies at Cambridge University. During the long journey, he spent his time working on complex mathematical calculations related to the life cycle of stars.
Chandrasekhar's calculations led him to a startling realization: there was an upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf star. This limit, now known as the Chandrasekhar limit, is approximately 1.4 times the mass of our Sun. If a star's mass exceeds this limit, it will not become a stable white dwarf at the end of its life, but will instead collapse into a neutron star or black hole.
This discovery contradicted the prevailing belief at the time, which held that all stars would eventually cool and fade into white dwarfs, regardless of their initial mass. Chandrasekhar's work showed that the fate of a star was determined by its mass, with more massive stars meeting a more dramatic end.
Despite the significance of his discovery, Chandrasekhar initially faced resistance from the scientific community, particularly from noted astrophysicist Sir Arthur Eddington. Eddington publicly ridiculed Chandrasekhar's ideas, believing that they were simply a mathematical curiosity with no physical basis. However, as observational evidence mounted in support of Chandrasekhar's theory, it gradually gained acceptance.
Chandrasekhar's discovery laid the foundation for our modern understanding of stellar evolution and the ultimate fate of stars. His work also paved the way for the discovery of neutron stars and black holes, which have become central to our understanding of the universe. In recognition of his contributions to astrophysics, Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983, more than half a century after his fateful voyage to England.
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