First Nobel Prize in Physics Awarded in the year 1901 Wilhelm Conrad Röntgen, German Physicist For the discovery of X-rays Total No. of Nobel prizes given so far 109 Nobel prize for physics was not awarded for six years 1916, 1931, 1934, 1940, 1941, 1942 Two women who won Marie Curie (1903) and Maria Goeppert-Mayer (1963)

Chandra Shekar Venkata Raman/Sir C.V.Raman November 7, November 21, 1970 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1924 and knighthood in Sir.C.V. Raman was awarded Nobel Prize of Physics in 1930 for his “Raman Effect” related to light. Indian Physicists who received Nobel Prize

Dr. Subramanian Chandrashekar October 19, August 21, 1995 Astro-Physicist awarded Nobel Prize for Physics in 1983 for his theory on ‘white dwarf stars’ Defined ‘Chandrasekhar Limit’. Dr. Subramaniyan is the son of the elder brother of the 'Nobel Prize Winner'-Sir C.V.Raman The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass of a stable white dwarf star = 1.39 M sun (2.765 × ) kg The Chandrasekhar limit is the mass above which white dwarfs with masses greater than the limit would be subject to gravitational collapse, evolving into a different type of stellar remnant, such as a neutron star or black hole. The nearest known white dwarf is Sirius B, at 8.6 light years,

A white dwarf is what stars like the Sun become after they have exhausted their nuclear fuel. Near the end of its nuclear burning stage, this type of star expels most of its outer material, creating a planetary nebula. Only the hot core of the star remains.

They can go supernova. Because many stars orbit others in relatively close proximity, a white dwarf in a binary system can begin to cannibalise its partner, pulling material away from it. The white dwarf continues to gobble up matter from the other star until eventually a critical mass is reached, triggering a chain reaction that results in the white dwarf violently exploding in a type Ia supernova. 2. Their gravity is 350,000x Earth’s. The more mass a white dwarf has, the greater the gravity, the more its matter is compressed and, therefore, the smaller the dwarf is. 3. Many will become black dwarfs. A white dwarf is the core of a dead star and these stellar remnants gradually cool until they no longer radiate – in other words, they become more or less the same temperature as the background of space. At this point, they are considered ‘black dwarfs’. However, no black dwarfs exist yet because this process takes trillions of years, many times longer than the current age of our universe. 4. A teaspoon of white dwarf matter weighs 5.5 tons. Since they are extremely dense. 5. The Sun will one day become a white dwarf. The most massive stars will eventually go supernova, but stars withanything from 0.8 to about ten solar masses will ultimately become white dwarfs. This represents over 97 per cent of the Milky Way – most of the stars you can see in the night sky.