The Chandrasekhar Limit

Summary:

The text provides an overview of the Chandrasekhar limit, which relates to the maximum mass a white dwarf star can have before undergoing gravitational collapse. It explains that Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, an Indian astrophysicist, made significant contributions to understanding the fate of massive stars. Previously, it was believed that all stars collapsed into white dwarfs when they died, but Chandrasekhar’s work challenged this notion.

The Chandrasekhar limit is defined as the mass at which the pressure from electron degeneracy can no longer balance the gravitational self-attraction. The current limit is set at 1.39 times the mass of the Sun. The text explains the concept of electron degeneracy pressure and how it relates to the stability of white dwarf stars.

Applications of the Chandrasekhar limit include explaining why the cores of lighter elements fuse into heavier ones and prevent the collapse of the star’s core. If a white dwarf exceeds the Chandrasekhar limit, it can collapse and evolve into a neutron star or a black hole. The Chandrasekhar unit, equivalent to 1.44 solar masses, is used to measure the maximum mass of a white dwarf.

The text also answers frequently asked questions about the consequences of exceeding the Chandrasekhar limit, the significance of the limit, the fast spin of neutron stars, the outcome of a neutron star colliding with a black hole, and the size limit of a black hole.

Excerpt:

The Chandrasekhar Limit:

Did you have at least some idea that stars bite the dust? At the point when stars run out of hydrogen, the atomic combination responses at their centre stop, and they become shaky and break down on themselves. It is essential to take note that not all stars break down the same way. Gigantic stars detonate into a cosmic explosion and afterwards breakdown down into neutron stars or dark openings. We know this as a result of being crafted by astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. Chandrasekhar was an Indian-conceived researcher who burned through 50 years at the University of Chicago. He is generally well known for concocting the hypothesis that makes sense of the passing of the universe’s most monstrous stars. Before Chandrasekhar, researchers expected that all stars would implode into white midgets when they passed on.