A maximum mass for ideal white dwarfs is published
Chandrasekhar's paper The Maximum Mass of Ideal White Dwarfs appeared in the Astrophysical Journal, showing that relativistic degeneracy sets an upper bound on the mass a cold star can support. The number in that paper, under its own assumptions, was about 0.91 solar masses; the familiar value near 1.4 came from the fuller treatment that followed. Arthur Eddington rejected the conclusion publicly and its acceptance was delayed for years, but it is now the boundary that separates the two families of stellar ending.
Historical — it happened, and the record is settled.
Subjects
- Chandrasekhar limit · physical threshold · not located
- Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar · person · India / United States · not located
- Degeneracy pressure · concept · not located
- White dwarf · celestial body · Galactic · not located
Evidence
Partly verified — Core facts are sourced; some optional detail is deliberately absent.
The Maximum Mass of Ideal White Dwarfs
Derives an upper mass bound for a body supported by relativistic electron degeneracy. Journal, volume and pages come from an ADS scan listing seen via search; the paper was not fetched, and the statement that its own derived value was about 0.91 solar masses rests on a secondary summary.
The Astrophysical Journal · 1931 · Partly verified
S. Chandrasekhar, The Astrophysical Journal 74, 81-82 (1931)
Recorded on Chandrasekhar limit
- Alvan Graham Clark sees Sirius B
- A maximum mass for ideal white dwarfs is published
- A radius is measured for the heaviest known neutron star
Related
Related because they share a subject in the Atlas — never because the text looks similar.