Richard C. Tolman analyzed spherically symmetric metrics in 1934 and 1939. The form of the equation given here was derived by J. Robert Oppenheimer and George Volkoff in their 1939 paper, "On Massive Neutron Cores". In this paper, the equation of state for a degenerate Fermi gas of neutrons was used to calculate an upper limit of ~0.7 solar masses for the gravitational mass of a neutron star. Since this equation of state is not realistic for a neutron star, this limiting mass is likewise incorrect. Using gravitational wave observations from binary neutron star mergers (like GW170817) and the subsequent information from electromagnetic radiation (kilonova), the data suggest that the maximum mass limit is close to 2.17 solar masses. Earlier estimates for this limit range from 1.5 to 3.0 solar masses.