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SUBRAMANYAN CHANDRASEKHAR
Born : 1910
Died : 1995
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a Nobel Laureate in
Physics and one of the greatest astrophysicists of modern times was born on
October 19, 1910 in Lahore, (now in Pakistan) to parents Chandrasekhara
Subrahmanya Ayyaa civil servant and Sita Balakrishnan. Being the nephew of
the great, C.V. Raman, a Nobel Prize winner in Physics young
Chandrashekhar's interest in the subject came naturally to him.
In 1930, at the age of 19, he completed his degree in Physics from
Presidency College,
Madras and went to England for postgraduate studies at the Cambridge
University. Chandrasekhar was noted for his work in the field of stellar
evolution, and in the early 1930s he was the first to theorize that a
collapsing massive star would become an object so dense that not even light
could escape it; now known as the Black hole. He demonstrated that there is
an upper limit ( known as 'Chandrasekhar Limit' ) to the mass of a White
dwarf star. His theory challenged the common scientific notion of the 1930s
that all stars, after burning up their fuel, became faint, planet-sized
remnants known as white dwarfs. But today, the extremely dense neutron stars
and black holes implied by Chandrasekhar’s early work are a central part of
the field of astrophysics.
Initially his theory was rejected by peers and professional journals in
England. The distinguished astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington publicly
ridiculed his suggestion that stars could collapse into such objects( black
holes). Disappointed, and reluctant to engage in public debate,
Chandrasekhar moved to America and in 1937 joined the faculty as an
Assistant Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Chicago and
remained there till his death. At Chicago, he immersed himself in a
personalized style of research and teaching, tackling first one field of
astrophysics and then another in great depth. He wrote more than half a
dozen definitive books describing the results of his investigations. More
than 100,000 copies of his highly technical books have been sold. He also
served as editor of the Astrophysical Journal, the field’s leading journal,
for nearly 20 years; presided over a thousand colloquia; and supervised
Ph.D. research for more than 50 students.
Chandrasekhar was a creative, prolific genius whose ability to combine
mathematical precision with physical insight changed humanity's view of
stellar physics. In addition to his work on star degeneration, he has
contributed significantly to many disparate branches of physics, including
rotational figures of equilibrium, stellar interiors, radiative transfer of
energy through the atmospheres of stars, hydro magnetic stability and many
others. He won the Nobel Prize in 1983 and received 20 honorary degrees, was
elected to 21 learned societies and received numerous awards in addition to
the Nobel Prize, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society
of London; the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, London; the National Medal
of Science, the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences;
and the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences. NASA's
premier X-ray observatory was named the Chandra X-ray Observatory in his
honor.
He and his wife, Lalitha became American citizens in 1953. This genius
passed away on 21 August 1995 in Chicago, Illinois, USA..
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