Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a winner of the 1983 Nobel Prize in physics whose theories about the evolution of stars led to the concept of black holes, died of heart failure on August 21 at the University of Chicago Hospitals. He was 84 years old.
"In a sense, Chandra's [death] comes as an end of an era," comments his friend and colleague Eugene Parker, who is currently the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Chicago, where Chandrasekhar was Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics, as well as at the Enrico Fermi Institute. "In the 1930s, when he came into the field, people were just beginning to understand how a star worked. The things that are now taken for granted were considered very baffling. Chandra, who came towards the end of that phase, helped put together many of the pieces."
STELLAR: Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
"In a sense, Chandra's [death] comes as an end of an era," comments his friend and colleague Eugene Parker, who is currently the S. Chandrasekhar Distinguished Professor, Emeritus, at the University of Chicago, where Chandrasekhar was Morton D. Hull Distinguished Service Professor, Emeritus, in astronomy, astrophysics, and physics, as well as at the Enrico Fermi Institute. "In the 1930s, when he came into the field, people were just beginning to understand how a star worked. The things that are now taken for granted were considered very baffling. Chandra, who came towards the end of that phase, helped put together many of the pieces."
While...
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