Chandrasekhar limit
E9076
The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass a white dwarf star can have before collapsing under its own gravity, playing a crucial role in determining its ultimate fate as a neutron star or black hole.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Chandrasekhar limit canonical | 5 |
| Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarfs | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T93522 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Chandrasekhar limit Context triple: [Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, knownFor, Chandrasekhar limit]
-
A.
Schwarzschild radius
The Schwarzschild radius is the critical distance from the center of a non-rotating, spherically symmetric mass at which its escape velocity equals the speed of light, defining the boundary of a black hole.
-
B.
Chandrasekhar–Friedman–Schutz instability
The Chandrasekhar–Friedman–Schutz instability is a gravitational-radiation-driven instability in rotating stars that can cause certain oscillation modes to grow by emitting gravitational waves.
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C.
Oppenheimer–Snyder model
The Oppenheimer–Snyder model is a pioneering theoretical description of gravitational collapse in general relativity, providing one of the first rigorous treatments of how a massive star can form a black hole.
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D.
Chandrasekhar number
The Chandrasekhar number is a dimensionless quantity in magnetohydrodynamics that measures the relative importance of magnetic forces compared to viscous forces in a conducting fluid.
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E.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American astrophysicist and Nobel laureate renowned for his work on stellar structure and evolution, particularly the Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarfs.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Chandrasekhar limit Target entity description: The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass a white dwarf star can have before collapsing under its own gravity, playing a crucial role in determining its ultimate fate as a neutron star or black hole.
-
A.
Schwarzschild radius
The Schwarzschild radius is the critical distance from the center of a non-rotating, spherically symmetric mass at which its escape velocity equals the speed of light, defining the boundary of a black hole.
-
B.
Chandrasekhar–Friedman–Schutz instability
The Chandrasekhar–Friedman–Schutz instability is a gravitational-radiation-driven instability in rotating stars that can cause certain oscillation modes to grow by emitting gravitational waves.
-
C.
Oppenheimer–Snyder model
The Oppenheimer–Snyder model is a pioneering theoretical description of gravitational collapse in general relativity, providing one of the first rigorous treatments of how a massive star can form a black hole.
-
D.
Chandrasekhar number
The Chandrasekhar number is a dimensionless quantity in magnetohydrodynamics that measures the relative importance of magnetic forces compared to viscous forces in a conducting fluid.
-
E.
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar
Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar was an Indian-American astrophysicist and Nobel laureate renowned for his work on stellar structure and evolution, particularly the Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarfs.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (48)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
astrophysical concept
ⓘ
physical limit ⓘ |
| appliesTo | white dwarf ⓘ |
| appliesUnderAssumption |
cold white dwarf
ⓘ
no significant magnetic field ⓘ non-rotating white dwarf ⓘ |
| basedOn |
Fermi–Dirac statistics
ⓘ
quantum mechanics ⓘ special relativity ⓘ |
| contrastsWith |
Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit
ⓘ
Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit ⓘ
surface form:
Tolman–Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit
|
| dependsOn |
electron degeneracy pressure
ⓘ
gravitational self-attraction ⓘ mean molecular weight per electron ⓘ |
| describes | maximum mass of a stable white dwarf ⓘ |
| determines | stability of a white dwarf ⓘ |
| field |
astrophysics
ⓘ
relativistic astrophysics ⓘ stellar astrophysics ⓘ |
| hasApproximateRange | 1.38–1.44 solar masses ⓘ |
| hasApproximateValue | 1.4 solar masses ⓘ |
| hasConsequence |
gravitational collapse to a neutron star
ⓘ
onset of thermonuclear runaway in Type Ia supernovae ⓘ possible direct collapse to a black hole ⓘ |
| hasFormula | M_ch ≈ 5.83 / μ_e^2 solar masses ⓘ |
| hasTheoreticalDerivationBy | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar ⓘ |
| influences |
formation of neutron stars
ⓘ
formation of stellar-mass black holes ⓘ |
| isUpperBoundFor |
mass of carbon–oxygen white dwarfs
ⓘ
mass of helium white dwarfs ⓘ mass of oxygen–neon–magnesium white dwarfs ⓘ |
| measuredIn | solar mass ⓘ |
| namedAfter | Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar ⓘ |
| publishedIn |
The Astrophysical Journal
ⓘ
surface form:
Astrophysical Journal
|
| relatedConcept |
Eddington limit
ⓘ
Jeans mass ⓘ Oppenheimer–Volkoff limit ⓘ |
| relatedTo | Pauli exclusion principle ⓘ |
| relatesTo |
degenerate matter
ⓘ
equation of state of electron-degenerate matter ⓘ |
| relevantTo |
Type Ia supernova
ⓘ
accreting white dwarfs ⓘ binary star evolution ⓘ |
| thresholdFor | collapse of a white dwarf ⓘ |
| usedIn |
cosmological distance measurements via Type Ia supernovae
ⓘ
models of stellar evolution ⓘ supernova explosion models ⓘ |
| yearProposed | 1930 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Chandrasekhar limit Description of subject: The Chandrasekhar limit is the maximum mass a white dwarf star can have before collapsing under its own gravity, playing a crucial role in determining its ultimate fate as a neutron star or black hole.
Referenced by (6)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Chandrasekhar limit for white dwarfs