Today is 107 Birthday of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar!
Google is honoring him today!
“Twinkle, twinkle little star, how I wonder what you are.” Thanks to Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, we know! Today marks the 107th birthday of the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel Prize for his theory on the evolution of stars.
A child prodigy, Chandra published his first paper and developed his theory of star evolution before turning 20. By age 34, he was elected to the Royal Society of London, and soon after, became a distinguished service professor of physics.
The Indian-American physicist’s honors are astronomical, including the National Medal of Science, the Draper Medal of the US National Academy of Science, and the gold medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. Though originally met with skepticism in the 1930s, Chandra’s theories and equations won the Nobel Prize in Physics 50 years later.
Today’s Doodle illustrates one of the most important of all of S. Chandrasekhar's contributions to our understanding of stars and their evolution: The Chandrasekhar limit. The limit explains that when a star’s mass is lighter than 1.4 times that of the sun, it eventually collapses into a denser stage called a “white dwarf.” When heavier than 1.4, a white dwarf can continue to collapse and condense, evolving into a black hole or a supernova explosion.
Today we honor the original starman whose universal theories propel current space research and modern astronomy on their ambitious missions.
Happy birthday, Chandra!
Link: S. Chandrasekhar’s 107th Birthday
I am sure he would have been very happy to hear about recent discovery of Gravitational Waves and observation of coalescence of neutron stars!
The birthdate 19/10/1910 always looked curious. In 2010 -- 100th Birthday was a big event, both in India and in US.
I posted in Brf around that time - UC's president remembered him by telling a story. Chandra used to drive 50+ miles each way just to teach a class which had only two students. Such was his dedication. But, as the president reminded, every one in that class (Yang, Lee) got a Nobel in physics, so that was worth it. This was the only class, the president noted, where entire class and the professor got a Nobel! (Later some one corrected -- It wasn't exactly true that there were only two students, one more person sat in the class unofficially and occasionally.. this was Fermi!! (but he already had a Nobel)
I distinctly remember when the news of Nobel for him was announced which inspired a me to explain stellar structure to some people in my family
. I was happy that he finally received the well deserved recognition -- I knew the family. His uncle also had a Nobel Prize in Physics. Many other people in his family were quite notable in sciences. Both US and India can be proud of him.
Arjun Pandit asked about books, one good book about his life is(By Wali (Chandra)
(About a year ago, there was this post with reference to Chandra
.. some may find it interesting,