Which of the following scientists proved that stars with mass less than 1.44 times the mass of the Sun end up as white dwarfs when they die?
- Edwin Hubble
- S. Chandrasekhar
- Stephen Hawking
- Steven Weinberg
Explanation
Option (b) is correct
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar’s groundbreaking work in astrophysics led to the establishment of the upper mass limit for white dwarf stars, known as the Chandrasekhar limit, which is approximately 1.4 times the mass of the Sun. White dwarf stars, which are remnants of stars that have exhausted their nuclear fuel, exhibit extreme densities that challenge conventional understandings of stellar behaviour. Chandrasekhar’s calculations demonstrated that for white dwarfs exceeding this mass limit, electron degeneracy pressure—a quantum-mechanical effect that prevents further collapse—would be insufficient to counteract gravitational forces, leading to continued contraction.
