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Table of Contents
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar’s theoretical research on the evolution of stars has greatly contributed to the modern theory regarding the later evolutionary stages of stars.
See the fact file below for more information on Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar or alternatively, you can download our 26-page Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar worksheet pack to utilise within the classroom or home environment.
Key Facts & Information
Early Life and Education
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was born on October 19, 1910, in Lahore, Punjab, British India (now known as Pakistan.)
- He was born into a Tamil Brahmin family.
- His father, Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyar, was a Deputy Auditor General of the Northwestern Railways.
- According to his official Nobel Prize website biography, Chandrasekhar describes his mother, Sita Balakrishnan, as a βwoman of high intellectual attainments.β
- He had two elder sisters, three younger brothers, and four younger sisters.
- Chandrasekhar is not the first in his lineage to win a Nobel Prize; his uncle, Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930.
- Chandrasekhar was homeschooled until he was 12 years old.
- In 1918, his father was stationed in Madras and so their family relocated there.
- From 1922 to 1925, he attended the Hindu High School in Triplicane.
- For college, he attended Presidency College from 1925β1930, where he earned his Bachelorβs degree in Physics in June 1930.Β
- At Presidency College, he wrote his first paper entitled “The Compton Scattering and the New Statistics.β
- In July 1930, he was awarded a Government of India scholarship for graduate studies at Cambridge, England, where he studied at Trinity College, Cambridge, under the supervision of Professor R.H. Fowler.
- In England, Chandrasekhar researched the statistical mechanics of the degenerate electron gas in white dwarf stars.
- In 1933, after being awarded a bronze medal for his work on degenerate stars, he began to take his Ph.D. degree at Cambridge; then, in October of the same year, he has bestowed a Prize Fellowship at Trinity College, which lasted until 1937.Β
Early Career
- In the winter of 1936, Chandrasekhar was invited by Dr. Harlow Shapley to be a visiting lecturer in theoretical astrophysics at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
- Extremely impressed by him, Dr. Shapley offered Chandrasekhar a Harvard research fellowship, but he declined.
- At the time, Chandrasekhar also met Gerard Kuiper, a notable Dutch astrophysical observationalist who was considered to be an expert on white dwarf stars.
- Kuiper then introduced Chandrasekhar to Dr. Otto Struve, the Director of the Yerkes Observatory run by the University of Chicago, and President Robert Maynard Hutchins.
- Consequently, Chandrasekhar was offered a job as a Research Associate at the University of Chicago, and he accepted.
- In January 1937, Chandrasekhar officially became a faculty member of the University of Chicago, where he worked for the rest of his career.
- In 1952, he became a Morton D. Hull distinguished service professor of astrophysics, then the following year, he became a U.S. citizen.
Evolutionary Stages of Stars
- During the 1930s, the widely accepted theory was that stars lose energy after converting hydrogen to helium and consequently contract under the pull of their gravity.
- In this final βlose energyβ stage, the stars are called white dwarf stars.
- What happens to the electrons and atomic nuclei of white dwarf stars? They are compressed into a highly dense state.
- During his travels to England in 1930, Chandrasekhar came up with a radical idea about the final evolutionary stages of stars.
- At the University of Cambridge, he developed a theoretical model to demonstrate the structure of white dwarf stars factoring in the relativistic variation of mass with the velocities of their constituent electrons.
- With sufficient calculations, Chandrasekhar ascertained that a star having a mass more than 1.44 times that of the Sun does not form a white dwarf star but instead carries on until it completely collapses and then becomes a neutron star after bursting apart its gaseous envelope in a supernova explosion.
- That process is now known as the Chandrasekhar limit.Β
- Furthermore, he determined that a more massive star continues to collapse and forms a black hole.Β
- Chandrasekharβs work greatly contributed to our wider knowledge of neutron stars, supernova explosions, and black holes.Β
- His theory was strongly opposed by English astronomer Arthur Eddington.
Awards and Other Major Contributions
- Chandrasekhar was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his βtheoretical studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars.βΒ
- He shared the award with William A. Fowler.
- Not only did Chandrasekhar work on the evolution of stars but he also worked on a vast array of physics subjects, such as stellar dynamics, the quantum theory of the hydrogen anion, general relativity, and the mathematical theory of black holes to name a few.
Personal Life
- In September 1936, Chandrasekhar married Lalitha Doraiswamy, who was a fellow student at Presidency College.
- Chandrasekhar died of a heart attack at the University of Chicago Hospital in 1995.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Worksheets
This is a fantastic bundle that includes everything you need to know about Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar across 26 in-depth pages. These are ready-to-use worksheets that are perfect for teaching about Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar who was an Indian American astrophysicist who won the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics.
Complete List Of Included Worksheets
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Facts
- Vocabulary Map
- A Portrait Of Chandrasekhar
- Fact or Bluff?
- Correct Timeline
- The Chandrasekhar Limit
- Indian Scientists
- Astrophysicist Names
- My Own Tribute
- Inspirational Poem
- Lesson Review
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