2020-08-24 Mon

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was one of the giants of modern astronomy and astrophysics in the 20th Century. He was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler for his work on the theories that explain the structure and evolution of stars.

Chandrasekhar was the nephew of Sir Chandrasekhara Venkata Raman, who won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1930. He was born in Lahore on 19th October 1910, to Sita Balakrishnan and Chandrasekhara Subrahmanya Ayyar.

Chandra proved that there was an upper limit to the mass of a white dwarf. This limit, known as the Chandra limit, showed that stars more massive than the Sun would explode or form black holes as they died. Chandra also developed theories on star atmospheres, black holes, and the illumination of the sunlit sky, star structures and star mass.

To honor him Republic of Guinea Postal Department has issued a commemorative postage stamp of value 7500 Guinean Franc.

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