  Since 2012, we have initiated a new idea showing that the mass of highly
magnetized or modified Einstein's gravity induced white dwarfs could be
significantly super-Chandrasekhar with a different mass-limit. This discovery
has several important consequences, including explanation of peculiar,
over-luminous type Ia supernovae, soft gamma-ray repeaters and anomalous X-ray
pulsars without invoking extraordinarily strong, yet unobserved, magnetic
fields. It further argues for a possible second standard candle. Based on
simpler calculations, these white dwarfs are also shown to be much less
luminous than their standard counter-parts (of low magnetic fields). This
discovery altogether initiates a new field of research.
