with the result that there is a limiting mass above which the internal pressure of the white dwarf cannot support the star against collapse. This is in contrast with the familiar nonrelativistic situation where the pressure increases more rapidly than the gravitational forces so that sufficient contraction must ultimately provide a sufficient pressure to block further contraction. The limiting mass was clearly of the order of the mass M_☉ of the Sun (2 × 10³³ g). Λ precise value would require detailed calculations of the interior structure of the star with the precise value of ρΔp/pΔρ for intermediate levels as well as the upper fully relativistic levels at each radius in the star. But the implication was clear. A massive star, of which there are many, cannot fade out as a white dwarf once its internal energy source is exhausted. Instead it shrinks without limit, always too hot to become completely degenerate, and disappears when the gravitational field above its surface becomes so strong that light cannot escape. In modern language, the massive star eventually becomes a black hole. The reasoning was straightforward and the conclusion was startling. The repercussions that ultimately followed his discovery served to push Chandra farther into the obscure and lonely byways of science in a foreign Western society and ever more distant from his cultural origins.

Upon arrival in London Chandra discovered that the Office of the Director of Public Instruction in Madras and the High Commissioner of India in London had thoroughly bungled his admission to Cambridge. What was more, the secretary for the high commissioner's office had not the least interest in correcting the mistake and was openly rude in his assertion of that fact. Chandra was saved only by the eventual firm intervention of Fowler, who was vacationing in Ireland at the time of Chandra's arrival in London. The