Chandrasekhar

The white dwarf theory of Chandrasekhar described in the left frame was rejected by some well known astronomers. They thought it absurd that a white dwarf could have a limiting mass because this idea contradicted almost everything that was known about stars at the time. Much later, Chandrasekhar's brilliant idea was completely accepted and he was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1983 for his deep theoretical contributions to astrophysics.

Today, all textbooks on stars describe Chandrasekhar's limiting mass for white dwarfs as central to the structure of white dwarfs. The orbiting Chandra X-ray Telescope is named in his honor.