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Subrahmanyan ChandrasekharThe Man Behind The Name
Chandra in his early years
(Photo: AIP) |
NASA's premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in honor of the late
Indian-American Nobel laureate, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (pronounced: su/bra/mon'/yon
chandra/say/kar). Known to the world as Chandra (which means "moon" or "luminous" in Sanskrit), he
was widely regarded as one of the foremost astrophysicists of the twentieth century.
Chandra immigrated in 1937 from India to the United States, where he joined the faculty of the University of Chicago, a position he remained at until his death. He and his wife became American
citizens in 1953.
Chandra in his middle years
(Photo: AIP) |
Trained as a physicist at Presidency College, in Madras, India and at the University of Cambridge,
in England, he was one of the first scientists to combine the disciplines of physics and astronomy.
Early in his career he demonstrated that there is an upper limit - now called the Chandrasekhar
limit - to the mass of a white dwarf star. A white dwarf is the last stage in the evolution of a
star such as the Sun. When the nuclear energy source in the center of a star such as the Sun is
exhausted, it collapses to form a white dwarf. This discovery is basic to much of modern
astrophysics, since it shows that stars much more massive than the Sun must either explode or form
black holes.
Chandra in his later years
(Photo: Univ. of Chicago) |
Chandra was a popular teacher who guided over fifty students to their Ph.D.s. His research
explored nearly all branches of theoretical astrophysics and he published ten books, each covering
a different topic, including one on the relationship between art and science. For 19 years, he
served as editor of the Astrophysical Journal and turned it into a world-class publication. In
1983, Chandra was awarded the Nobel prize for his theoretical studies of the physical processes
important to the structure and evolution of stars.
According to Nobel laureate Hans Bethe, "Chandra was a first-rate astrophysicist and a beautiful and warm human being. I am happy to have known him."
"Chandra probably thought longer and deeper about our universe than anyone since Einstein," said
Martin Rees, Great Britain's Astronomer Royal.
Chandra's Career
| October 19, 1910 |
Born in Lahore to Sita Balakrishnan and Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyar. |
| 1918 |
Moved to Madras |
| 1925-1930 |
B.Sc. Physics student at Presidency College, Madras |
| 1929-1939 |
Studies of White Dwarf Stars |
| 1930-1933 |
Ph.D. student at Cambridge, under R.H. Fowler |
| 1931-1932 |
Papers on white dwarf stars |
| January 11, 1935 |
Battle with Eddington at the RAS |
| September 1936 |
Married Lalitha Doraiswamy |
| January 1937 |
Moved to Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago |
| 1939 |
Publishes Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure |
| 1938-1943 |
Studies of Stellar Dynamics |
| 1942 |
Publishes Principles of Stellar Dynamics |
| 1943-1950 |
Studies of Radiative Transfer |
| 1950 |
Publishes Radiative Transfer |
| 1952 |
Editor of Ap.J. (till 1971) |
| 1952-1961 |
Studies of Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability |
| 1961 |
Publishes Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability |
| 1961-1968 |
Studies of Figures of Equilibrium |
| 1968 |
Publishes Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium |
| 1962-1971 |
Studies of GR and Relativistic Astrophysics |
| 1974-1983 |
Studies of the Mathematical Theory of Black Holes |
| 1983 |
Publishes The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes |
| 1983 |
Nobel prize for physics |
| August 21, 1995 |
Died in Chicago |
More on Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
- "Empire of the Stars;" by Arthur I. Miller; Houghton Mifflin and Co, 2005
- "CHANDRA, a Biography of S. Chandrasekhar;" by Kameshwar C. Wali; The University of Chicago Press,
1991.
- "S. CHANDRASEKHAR, The Man Behind the Legend;" Editor, Kameshwar C. Wali; Imperial College Press,
1997.
- For more information on Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, read Chandra's autobiography.
Some of Chandra's Key Papers on Dense Matter and Relativity
- 'The highly collapsed configurations of a stellar mass', Mon. Not. Roy.
Astron. Soc., 91, 456-66 (1931).
- The maximum mass of ideal white dwarfs', Astrophys. J., 74, 81 - 2
(1931).
- 'The density of white dwarfstars', Phil. Mag., 11, 592 - 96 (1931).
- 'Some remarks on the state of matter in the interior of stars', Z. f.
Astrophysik, 5, 321-27 (1932).
- 'The physical state of matter in the interior of stars', Observatory, 57, 93 - 9 (1934)
- 'Stellar configurations with degenerate cores', Observatory, 57, 373 -
77 (1934).
- 'The highly collapsed configurations of a stellar mass' (second paper), Mon.
Not. Roy. Astron. Soc., 95, 207 - 25 (1935).
- 'Stellar configurations with degenerate cores', Mon. Not. Roy. Astron.
Soc., 95, 226-60 (1935).
- 'Stellar configurations with degenerate cores' (second paper), Mon. Not. Roy.
Astron. Soc., 95, 676 - 93 (1935).
- 'The pressure in the interior of a star', Mon. Not. Roy. Astron. Soc.,
96, 644 - 47 (1936).
- 'On the maximum possible central radiation pressure in a star of a given mass', Observatory, 59, 47 - 8 (1936).
- 'Dynamical instability of gaseous masses approaching the Schwarzschild limit in general
relativity', Phys. Rev. Lett., 12, 114 - 16 (1964); Erratum, Phys. Rev. Lett., 12, 437 - 38 (1964).
- 'The dynamical instability of the white-dwarf configurations approaching the limiting mass' (with
Robert F. Tooper), Astrophys. J., 139, 1396 - 98 (1964).
- 'The dynamical instability of gaseous masses approaching the Schwarzschild limit in general
relativity', Astrophys. J., 140, 417 - 33 (1964).
- 'Solutions of two problems in the theory of gravitational radiation', Phys.
Rev. Lett., 24, 611 - 15 (1970); Erratum, Phys. Rev. Lett., 24,
762 (1970).
- 'The effect of gravitational radiation on the secular stability of the Maclaurin spheroid', Astrophys. J., 161, 561 - 69 (1970).
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