Subrahmanyan+Chandrasekhar

= **Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar** =

by Emily Hanoian


= = = "Chandra probably thought longer and deeper about our universe than anyone since Einstein," = = = = = = =

====Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, (pronounced: su/bra/mon'/yon chandra/say/kar), also referred to by friends and colleagues as “Chandra,” which means “moon” or “luminous” in Sanskrit, (October 19, 1910 - August 21st, 1995) was an Indian American astrophysicist. Born in Lahore (which is now in Pakistan), he was the third child of a family of four sons and six daughters.[1]==== ======== ====His father, Chandrasekhara Subrahmanyan Ayyar, was an officer in the Government Service in the Indian Audits and Accounts Department while his mother, Sita (nee Balakrishnan) was an intellectual woman who Chandra says “was passionately devoted to her children, and was intensely ambitious for them.” Not only was Chandra admired for his scientific achievements, but his knowledge and dedication to science earned him the Nobel Peace prize in physics and an important legacy that is remembered by astronomers and astrophysicists today.[1]====

====Chandra’s early education was completed at home by his parents until his father was transferred to Madras. After graduating high school, he attend the Presidency College and studied Physics, Chemistry, English, and Sanskrit, earning his bachelor’s degree in physics. Professors and lecturers could recognize his brilliance and paid special attention to Chandra. At eighteen and an undergraduate, his paper entitled “The Compton Scattering and the New Statistics” was published. Such success in this field helped Chandra to focus on a career in scientific research, despite his father’s wishes to work with him and join the Indian civil service.[2] He continued his graduate studies in Cambridge, England and eventually took his ph.D degree at Cambridge in 1933. While attending Presidency College in Madras, Chandra met Lalitha Dosaiswamy and they were later married in India.[1]====

= = = “He was the most intellectual of intellectuals, and the most tireless worker in science, he preferred to study in great depth–that was his relaxation. He had talked of quitting for some years, but he could never stop because he would always seize on some new problem." =

Norman Lebovitz, Professor of Mathematics at Chicago and a former student of Chandra. [3]
= = ====Chandra was one of the first scientists to combine the disciplines of physics and astronomy. Chandra’s major scientific fields of study were stellar evolution and stellar structure. He also studied the processes of energy transfer within stars. It had been previously discovered that stars could end their life either dramatically and explosively as a supernova, or as an extremely small dense star of low luminosity known as a white dwarf. The star’s particular path that it took was explained by Chandra in his //Introduction to the Study of Stellar Structure// (1939).[2]====



====He discovered that when a star has exhausted its nuclear fuel, an inward gravitational collapse will occur. This will eventually be stopped by the outward pressure exerted by a degenerate gas, or a gas that is completely ionized. The electrons are stripped away from the atomic nuclei, and it is very highly compressed. The star will therefore have shrunk into an object composed of material so dense that a very small amount of it would weigh many tons.[2]====

====Initially Chandra’s theory was rejected by peers and professionals in England. The distinguished and famous astronomer Sir Arthur Eddington publicly ridiculed his suggestion that stars could collapse into such objects through this process, which are now known as black holes. Disappointed, and reluctant to continue defending his research, Chandra moved to America and in 193 he accepted a position as Research Associate of the University of Chicago. It is proven that these extremely dense neutron stars and black holes implied by Chandra’s early work are a central part of the field of astrophysics. [3]====



Image of M31 (copyright 2002 R. Gendler, photo by R. Gendler)

====This theory about the nature of stars for which Chandra would be awarded the Nobel Prize 53 years later in 1983, challenged many common scientific notions of the 1930s. It was known that stars, after burning up their fuel, became faint, planet-sized remnants known as white dwarfs. However, stars with a mass greater than 1.4 times that of the sun, which is now known as the “Chandrasekhar limit"– must eventually collapse past the stage of a white dwarf into an object of a much more enormous density, Chandra explains, that “one is left speculating on other possibilities....” A white dwarf is the last stage in the evolution of a star such as the Sun. This discovery is essential to modern astrophysics as it shows that stars which pass this mass limit, more massive than the Sun, must either explode or form black holes.[3]====

====Chandra dedicated most of his time to the mathematical theory of black holes throughout the 1970s. He continued to make a detailed study of Newton’s work, as he published his results and research in his //Newton's Principia for the Common Reader//.[2]====

====Chandra never left the University of Chicago, teaching and lecturing on astrophysics, astronomy, and mathematics. He retired in 1980, yet he stayed devoted to studying mathematics. In 1983, he published a classic work on the mathematical theory of black holes. His semi-retirement also gave him more free time to pursue his hobbies and interests: literature and music, particularly orchestral, chamber, and South Indian. [2]====

= "Any new fact or insight that I may have found has not seemed to me as a 'discovery' of mine, but rather something that had always been there and that I had chanced to pick up." =

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.[7]
====At Chicago, Chandra was known as a popular teacher and lecturer who guided over fifty students to their Ph.D.s. He immersed himself in a personalized style of research and teaching, closely studying one field of astrophysics after another in great depth. His thorough and accurate research explored nearly all branches of theoretical astrophysics. 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.[3]====



==== “Chandra cared for the personal and intellectual well-being of his students, trained them carefully and was willing to spend enormous amounts of time with them,” said Princeton University Provost Jeremiah Ostriker, a student of Chandrasekhar from 1960 to 1964. “He was a powerful role model for all who came in contact with him.[3] ====

==== “Chandra was one of the great astrophysicists of our time,” said Hans Bethe, a fellow Nobel laureate and a professor of physics emeritus at Cornell. “He showed that white dwarf stars cannot grow beyond a certain mass–the same mass that triggers the explosion of supernovae, the most brilliant display in the sky. Chandra was also the greatest master of the English language that I know.”[3] ====

==== “Chandra’s unique strength was his combination of a fundamental understanding of physical concepts and his phenomenal mathematical ability,” said Eugene Parker, the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus at the University of Chicago. ==== ==== Continued: “Chandra’s productivity was magnified greatly by his ability to continually move into new fields and quickly become the master of each, invariably bringing much greater clarity to our understanding and usually pointing out important ideas previous researchers had missed or misconstrued.” [3] ====

====Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar died of heart failure on August 21 at the University of Chicago Hospital. He was 84 years old. Chandra received 20 honorary degrees, and was elected to 21 learned societies, receiving numerous awards in addition to the Nobel Prize, including the Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society of London; the Rumford Medal of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; the Royal Medal of the Royal Society, London; the National Medal of Science; and the Henry Draper Medal of the National Academy of Sciences.[3]====




 * A biography, “Chandra: A Biography of S. Chandrasekhar,” was written by Kameshwar Wali and published by the University of Chicago Press in 1991.[3]


 * He became a U.S. citizen in 1953. [3]


 * In addition, the “Chandrasekhar number,” an important dimensionless number of magnetohydrodynamics, is named after him.[6]


 * The asteroid 1958 Chandra is also named after the astrophysicist.[6]

= = = Chandra’s X-Ray Observatory =

==== In 1999, NASA decided to name the third of its four "Great Observatories'" after Chandra. The Chandrasekhar X-ray Observatory was launched and deployed by Space Shuttle Columbia on July 23rd, 1999.[4] ====

==== NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory is a telescope specifically designed to detect X-ray emission from very hot regions of the Universe. This included exploded stars, clusters of galaxies, and matter around black holes. Because the atmosphere is able to absorb X-rays from Earth, Chandra must orbit above the atmosphere, up to an altitude of 139,000 km (86,500 mi) in space.[4] ====



==== The Chandra X-ray Center is located at the Smithsonian's Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, MA, which operates the satellite, processes the data, and distributes it to scientists around the world for analysis.[4] ====

====NASA explains how to Observatory works: “Chandra carries four very sensitive mirrors nested inside each other. The energetic X-rays strike the insides of the hollow shells and are focused onto electronic detectors at the end of the 9.2- m (30-ft.) optical bench. Depending on which detector is used, very detailed images or spectra of the cosmic source can be made and analyzed.”[4]====

The Chandra X-ray Observatory Video

====Chandra has been able to take images of many spectacular, glowing remains of exploded stars. It has observed the region around the supermassive black hole in the center of the Milky Way, and found black holes across the Universe.[4]====

====NASA explains, “Chandra has traced the separation of dark matter from normal matter in the collision of galaxies in a cluster and is contributing to both dark matter and dark energy studies. As its mission continues, Chandra will continue to discover startling new science about our high-energy Universe.” You can follow NASA’s Chandra on Facebook, Twitter, and Myspace.[4]====

= I am aware of the usefulness of science to society and of the benefits society derives from it. =

====Chandra was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his studies on the physical processes important to the structure and evolution of stars. His lifetime's achievements may be viewed in the footnotes to his Nobel lecture.[6]====

1939 || //Introdution to the Study of Stellar Structure// || 1942 || //Principles of Stellar Dynamics// || 1950 || //Radiative Transfer// || 1960 || //Plasma Physics// || 1961 || //Hydrodynamic and Hydromagnetic Stability// || 1969 || //Ellipsoidal Figures of Equilibrium// || 1983 || //The Mathematical Theory of Black Holes// || 1987 || //Truth and Beauty: Aesthetics and Motivations in Science// || 1995 || //Newton's Principia for the Common Reader// [9] ||
 * Author of books:** ||
 * Author of books:** ||

===="The respected physicist once described himself to his biographer, Kameshar C. Wali, as "a lonely wanderer in the byways of science." Throughout his life, Chandra strove to acquire knowledge and understanding, according to an autobiographical essay published with his Nobel lecture, motivated "principally by a quest after perspectives."[2]====

=__References__= = =

9. http://www.nndb.com/people/960/000099663/
=__Links:__=

The Chandra X-Ray Observatory

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

Interview with Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar

=__Bibliography__=

"About Chandra." The Chandra X-ray Observatory Center :: Gateway to the Universe of X-ray Astronomy! 2008. Web. 25 July 2010. . Koppes, Steve. "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar." University of Chicago News Office. 22 Aug.1995. Web. 25 July 2010. . "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar - Autobiography". Nobelprize.org. 25 Jul 2010 http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/physics/laureate /1983/chandrasekhar-autobio.html "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar: Biography from Answers.com." Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias. 2010. Web. 25 July 2010. . "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar - Biography." The Biographicon. 2008. Web. 25 July 2010. . "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Quotes - Dictionary of Science Quotations and Scientist Quotes." Today In Science History. Web. 25 July 2010. . "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar Quotes." Find the Famous Quotes You Need, ThinkExist.com Quotations. Web. 25 July 2010. . "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar." Timeline of Nobel Winners, 2002, 2001, 2000, 1999, 1998, 1997, 1996. Web. 25 July 2010. .