Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar investigated stellar structure and stability by connecting microscopic physics to the equilibrium of entire stars. His analysis of white dwarfs included the effect of special relativity on the electron degeneracy pressure supporting them against gravity.
At sufficiently high mass density, increasing density does not make that support grow rapidly enough to balance arbitrarily large stellar mass. The resulting Chandrasekhar limit is about 1.4 solar masses for the usual composition assumption. It is a limit for this form of stellar support, with major consequences for the possible endpoints of stellar evolution.[ref]
On Stars, Their Evolution and Their Stability by Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar. White-dwarf equilibrium, relativistic degeneracy and limiting-mass discussion
Portrait of Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
. AIP Emilio Segrè Visual Archives, Gift of Kameshwar Wali; individual photographer not specified. AIP attribution-only permission for any purpose, including redistribution, derivatives and commercial use, via Wikimedia Commons. Source. Articles by others on the same topic
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar (1910–1995) was an Indian-American astrophysicist renowned for his significant contributions to the understanding of stellar evolution and the structure of stars. He is best known for his work on the Chandrasekhar limit, which is the maximum mass (approximately 1.4 times the mass of the Sun) that a white dwarf star can have before it becomes unstable and can no longer support itself against gravitational collapse.