{
  "id": 14472282,
  "title": "Chandrasekhar Placed A Limit On White Dwarfs, But A New Study Finds This Limit Is Not Absolute",
  "url": "https://urgent.news/2026/10/14/chandrasekhar-placed-a-limit-on-white-dwarfs-but-a-new-study-finds",
  "topic": "science",
  "section": "Science",
  "published": "2026-10-14T14:57:08.000Z",
  "source": {
    "name": "Universe Today",
    "slug": "universe-today",
    "url": "https://www.universetoday.com/articles/chandrasekhar-placed-a-limit-on-white-dwarfs-but-a-new-study-finds-this-limit-is-not-absolute"
  },
  "original_language": "en",
  "account": "In the 1930s, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar established a fundamental limit on white dwarfs, determining that they could not exceed 1.44 solar masses. This limit, known as the Chandrasekhar limit, is grounded in the interplay of gravity and electron pressure. Despite numerous attempts by theorists to overcome this limit, observational evidence consistently supported Chandrasekhar's prediction. Type Ia supernovae, triggered by the collision of two white dwarfs, relied on this limit for their predictable behavior. However, in 2003, the Supernova Legacy Survey observed a supernova that appeared to surpass Chandrasekhar's limit. This anomaly prompted further investigation, leading to a recent study in The Astrophysical Journal Letters that examined the role of magnetic fields in breaking this limit. The study found that a highly magnetized white dwarf could potentially reach nearly three solar masses before collapsing. By incorporating the effect of magnetic fields into stellar evolution simulations, researchers discovered that a Sun-like star does not necessarily need to be strongly magnetized to form a white dwarf with a magnetic field. The magnetic field becomes concentrated as the core collapses, allowing a magnetized white dwarf to form from a typical star. This research suggests that magnetized white dwarfs might be more common than previously assumed, potentially explaining the observed size of certain white dwarfs and the 2003 supernova anomaly.",
  "summary": "The Chandrasekhar limit states that a white dwarf can be no larger than 1.4 solar masses. A new study demonstrates how highly magnetized white dwarfs could overcome that limit, and how such super-Chandrasekhar white dwarfs could form.",
  "key_points": [
    "Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar set 1.44 solar mass limit for white dwarfs in 1930s",
    "2003 Supernova Legacy Survey observed supernova exceeding Chandrasekhar limit",
    "Magnetized white dwarfs could reach nearly three solar masses, study finds"
  ],
  "editors_take": null,
  "illustration": null,
  "coverage": {
    "outlets": 1,
    "also_reported_by": []
  },
  "ai_generated": true,
  "disclaimer": "Summaries, key points and the editor’s take are written by software from other outlets’ reporting and may contain errors — always check the linked original."
}