LT230111: What happens to a star exactly at the Chandrasekhar limit?
What would be the result of a star exactly at the Chandrasekhar limit? Would it be difficult to determine (White Dwarf vs Supernova), and do any such stars exist?
The Chandrasekhar limit actually has no relevance in considering star life cycles. In the conventional picture, when stars reach the end of their lives, they blow up and become White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, or Black Holes, depending on their masses. The Chandrasekhar limit, at about 1.4 times the mass of our Sun, is a notional divider point between the mass for a White Dwarf and that for a Neutron Star.
Fusion Star life cycles.
Recent work reveals that all three of the above (White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, and Black Holes) are actually the same sort of object, differing only in mass.
The position is, that there is an extended range of stellar objects called Vortex Stars (which differ fundamentally from normal stars), and that this range includes both White Dwarfs and Neutron Stars as adjacent partners.
Following is a graphic representing a Neutron Star. All Vortex Stars are extremely-rapidly rotating, dense objects, which emit strong beams of energy along their poles.
Notional concept of a Neutron Star.
On moving up the mass scale, a Vortex Star may be called a White Dwarf, a Neutron Star, a stellar-mass Black Hole, or an AGN (Active Galactic Nucleus or Supermassive Black Hole). The distinction between these names is only one of convenience or convention. There is no basic difference between these objects except for their masses (or rotation rates, which turn out to reflect their mass).
There's more detail at UG102: Understanding Vortex Stars: White Dwarfs, Neutron Stars, Black Holes, and AGNs .
Item: LT230111.
Perth, Western Australia.
Last update 2026 Apr 22.
