S. Chandrasekhar, Nobel Prize in Physics 1983

Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar FRS (Tamil: சுப்பிரமணியன் சந்திரசேகர்), was an Indian American astrophysicist who was awarded the 1983 Nobel Prize for Physics with William A. Fowler "for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of the stars". His mathematical treatment of stellar evolution yielded many of the best current theoretical models of the later evolutionary stages of massive stars and black holes. The Chandrasekhar limit is named after him.

Prof. Chandasekhar was a brilliant Astrophysicist who proposed the Chandrasekar Limit in 1930 whereby stars whose mass is more than 1.43 times the mass of the sun cannot become white dwarfs because of relativistic degeneracy. This laid the foundation for black holes. This was contrary to the belief of Arthur Eddington who ridiculed this idea claiming that this concept was nothing short of stellar buffoonery and that nature can not behave in this absurd fashion. As time passed on this was accepted in toto by the astronomers and Chandrasekhar was awarded the Noble Prize in 1983, 53 years after his momentous discovery. He passed away in 1995 in Chicago. NASA's flagship X-Ray telescope launched on July 23, 1999 is named "Chandra Observatory" honoring Prof. Chandrasekhar.