Who was S. Chandrasekhar? Google doodle celebrates 107th birthday of Nobel Prize-winning astrophysicist

Today's Google doodle marks what would have been the 107th birthday of Indian American astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar.

Chandrasekhar, known as Chandra, won the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 for his theory on the evolution of stars.

"Today’s Doodle illustrates one of the most important of all of S. Chandrasekhar's contributions to our understanding of stars and their evolution: The Chandrasekhar limit," the tech giant explained.

The limit explains that when a star’s mass is lighter than 1.4 times that of the sun, it eventually collapses into a denser stage called a “white dwarf.”

When heavier than 1.4, a white dwarf can continue to collapse and condense, evolving into a black hole or a supernova explosion.
Born in Lahore, Pakistan in 1910, Chandra was a child prodigy. He published his first paper and developing his theory of star evolution before he even turned 20.

Although the scientific community was initially sceptical, his theories went on to win the Nobel Prize 50 years later in the 1980s.

By the time Chandrasekhar was 34, he was elected to the Royal Society of London and then became a service professor of physics.
During the course of his life, he tackled many problems within physics. Chandra worked on things like stellar dynamics, quantum theory as well as general relativity and the mathematical theories behind black holes.

He became a citizen of the United States in 1953 and worked at the University of Chicago until his death in 1995 at the age of 84.

His work has helped contribute to our understanding of the universe and current space exploration programs.

"Today we honor the original starman whose universal theories propel current space research and modern astronomy on their ambitious missions," said Google.

"Happy birthday, Chandra!"