The original name for the X-ray observatory was AXAF (the Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility.) The co-winners of the contest to rename AXAF were Tyrel Johnson, a student from Utah, and Jatila van der Veen, a teacher from California. Chandra is the shortened name for Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar and means "moon" or "luminous". Chandrasekhar emigrated from India to the University of Chicago in 1937 and remained there until he died in 1995. Chandrasekhar studied all branches of astrophysics, especially stellar evolution and dynamics. He calculated the theoretical limit for the mass of a star that becomes a white dwarf. In 1983 Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in physics for his theoretical studies in stellar evolution.

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Slide 18 of 28