What is the Chandrasekar Limit ?
V. Krishna Moorthy said, “…the mass limit at which a nonrotating astral body cannot be supported by the pressure of the electron shells in its atoms…” Um, maybe, what do you mean by “astral body?” Wikipedia defines the Chandrasekhar limit as the mass above which a body’s weight can not be supported by electron degeneracy pressure. Stars bigger than the C. limit can and do exist. As long as the star is burning, everything’s OK, because the star is supported by… Um… Well, I don’t understand that part, but the point is that when the star runs out of hydrogen to burn, it starts to contract. If it is smaller than the C. limit, the contraction will ultimately be stopped by electron degeneracy pressure, and the star becomes a white dwarf. If it is larger than the C. limit, its collapse will not be stopped by electron degeneracy pressure, and it will contract to the point where a different type of nuclear reaction becomes possible. The new type of reaction is a runaway process, not a s
