CHANDRA: The Man
Behind The Name
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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 [as in
Sandra] /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.
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Chandra in his
early years
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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.
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Chandra in his
middle years
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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
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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.
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Chandra in his
later years
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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.
Press Release
Chandra's career
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1910 Oct 19
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Born in Lahore to Sita Balakrishnan and Chandrasekhara
Subrahmanya Ayyar.
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1918
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Moved to Madras
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1925-1930
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B.Sc. Physics student at Presidency College, Madras
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1929-1939
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1: Studies of White Dwarf Stars
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1930-1933
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Ph.D. student at Cambridge, under R.H. Fowler
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1931-1932
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Papers on white dwarf stars
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1935 Jan 11
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Battle with Eddington at the RAS
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1936 Sep
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Married Lalitha Doraiswamy
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1937 Jan
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Moved to Yerkes Observatory, University of Chicago
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1939
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Publishes Introduction to the Study of Stellar
Structure
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1938-1943
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2: Studies of Stellar Dynamics
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1942
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Publishes Principles of Stellar Dynamics
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1943-1950
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3: Studies of Radiative Transfer
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1950
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Publishes Radiative Transfer
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1952
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Editor of Ap.J. (till 1971)
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1952-1961
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4: Studies of Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic
Stability
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1961
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Publishes Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability
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1961-1968
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5: Studies of Figures of Equilibrium
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1968
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Publishes Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium
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1962-1971
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6: Studies of GR and Relativistic Astrophysics
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1974-1983
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7: Studies of the Mathematical Theory of Black Holes
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1983
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Publishes The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes
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1983
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Nobel prize for physics
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1995 Aug 21
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Died in Chicago
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More on Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
"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.
Some of Chandra's key papers on dense matter and relativity
The following list is taken
from Chandra's own summary at http://www.nobel.se/laureates/physics-1983.html
For more information on Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, read his autobiography
there.
'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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