Chandrasekhar Limit

The Chandrasekhar limit limits the mass of bodies made from electron-degenerate matter, a dense form of matter which consists of nuclei immersed in a gas of electrons. The limit is the maximum nonrotating mass which can be supported against gravitational collapse by electron degeneracy pressure. It is named after the Indian astrophysicist Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, and is commonly given as being about 1.4 solar masses. As white dwarfs are composed of electron-degenerate matter, no nonrotating white dwarf can be heavier than the Chandrasekhar limit. The Chandrasekhar limit is analogous to the Tolman-Oppenheimer-Volkoff limit for Neutron Stars.