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Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar is responsible for some of the most important research ever done – helping us understand the evolution of stars, and inching closer to better understanding the nature of the universe itself.
Mr Chandrasekhar, whose 107th birthday would have been Thursday, was the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel Prize when he was given it for his theory on the evolution of stars. He determined that not all stars will turn into white dwarfs, and that something far more strange awaited the big ones.
Here are five things to know.
1. Mr Chandrasekhar’s work challenged our previous understanding of what happens to stars as they get to the end of their life
Previously, scientists up until the 1930s had thought that stars collapse into white dwarves, after they convert their hydrogen and helium stores. White dwarves, which are about the size of Earth, become extremely dense as their electrons and nuclei are compressed.
2. But Mr Chandrasekhar expanded on that understanding, determining that not all stars are created equal
He found that some stars don’t simply stop contracting later in life. Stars that have a mass more than 1.44 times that of our Sun, he found, would continue to contract. That 1.44 figure, known as the Chandrasekhar limit, was a major step in understanding how neutron stars are created, and what sparks supernova explosions.
Science news in picturesShow all 20 1 /20Science news in pictures Science news in pictures Pluto has 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen Pluto has a 'beating heart' of frozen nitrogen that is doing strange things to its surface, Nasa has found. The mysterious core seems to be the cause of features on its surface that have fascinated scientists since they were spotted by Nasa's New Horizons mission. "Before New Horizons, everyone thought Pluto was going to be a netball - completely flat, almost no diversity," said Tanguy Bertrand, an astrophysicist and planetary scientist at NASA's Ames Research Center and the lead author on the new study. "But it's completely different. It has a lot of different landscapes and we are trying to understand what's going on there."
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PA
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Science news in pictures Turtle embryos influence sex by shaking The sex of the turtle is determined by the temperatures at which they are incubated. Warm temperatures favour females. But by wiggling around the egg, embryos can find the “Goldilocks Zone” which means they are able to shield themselves against extreme thermal conditions and produce a balanced sex ratio, according to the new study published in Current Biology journal
Ye et al/Current Biology
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Reuters
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A. Gennari
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Steven G Johnson
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Clay Bolt
Science news in pictures New mammal species found inside crocodile Fossilised bones digested by crocodiles have revealed the existence of three new mammal species that roamed the Cayman Islands 300 years ago. The bones belonged to two large rodent species and a small shrew-like animal
New Mexico Museum of Natural History
Science news in pictures Fabric that changes according to temperature created Scientists at the University of Maryland have created a fabric that adapts to heat, expanding to allow more heat to escape the body when warm and compacting to retain more heat when cold
Faye Levine, University of Maryland
Science news in pictures Baby mice tears could be used in pest control A study from the University of Tokyo has found that the tears of baby mice cause female mice to be less interested in the sexual advances of males
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Science news in pictures Final warning to limit "climate catastrophe" The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has issued a report which projects the impact of a rise in global temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius and warns against a higher increase
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Science news in pictures Nobel prize for evolution chemists The nobel prize for chemistry has been awarded to three chemists working with evolution. Frances Smith is being awarded the prize for her work on directing the evolution of enzymes, while Gregory Winter and George Smith take the prize for their work on phage display of peptides and antibodies
Getty/AFP
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Reuters/AP
Science news in pictures Discovery of a new species of dinosaur The Ledumahadi Mafube roamed around 200 million years ago in what is now South Africa. Recently discovered by a team of international scientists, it was the largest land animal of its time, weighing 12 tons and standing at 13 feet. In Sesotho, the South African language of the region in which the dinosaur was discovered, its name means "a giant thunderclap at dawn"
Viktor Radermacher / SWNS
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ESO/A. Müller et al
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José Iriarte
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Pictures by: Tom Momary
3. His findings hinted at the existence of black holes
Stars with much more mass than our sun will continue to contract beyond the white dwarf stage. That continued contraction is what creates supernovas. For those stars with much more mass, the continued contraction is thought to eventually yield a black hole.
4. He published his first theories on star evolution before he turned 20
The Indian-American physicist was also elected to the Royal Society of London before the age of 34, and became a distinguished service professor of Physics not too long after that.
5. He was a pioneer for astrophysicists
He became the first astrophysicist to win a Nobel Peace prize for his work on the Chandrasekhar limit, which he received in 1983 alongside William A Fowler.
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