DQ Herculis, or Nova Herculis 1934, was a slow, bright

nova A nova (plural novae or novas) is a transient astronomical event that causes the sudden appearance of a bright, apparently "new" star (hence the name "nova", which is Latin for "new") that slowly fades over weeks or months. Causes of the dramati ...

occurring in the northern

constellation A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object. The origins of the e ...

of Hercules in December 1934. This

cataclysmic variable star In astronomy, cataclysmic variable stars (CVs) are stars which irregularly increase in brightness by a large factor, then drop back down to a quiescent state. They were initially called novae (), since ones with an outburst brightness visible to ...

was discovered on 13 December 1934 by J. P. M. Prentice from Stowmarket, Suffolk. It reached peak brightness on 22 December 1934 with an apparent magnitude of 1.5. The nova remained visible to the naked eye for several months. This is a

binary star A binary star is a system of two stars that are gravitationally bound to and in orbit around each other. Binary stars in the night sky that are seen as a single object to the naked eye are often resolved using a telescope as separate stars, in wh ...

system consisting of a white dwarf primary with an estimated 60% of the

mass of the Sun The solar mass () is a standard unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxies and black holes. It is approximately equal to the mass ...

and a

red dwarf ''Red Dwarf'' is a British science fiction comedy franchise created by Rob Grant and Doug Naylor, which primarily consists of a television sitcom that aired on BBC Two between 1988 and 1999, and on Dave since 2009, gaining a cult following. T ...

secondary with 40% of the Sun's mass. They orbit each other tightly with a period of . The system shows orbital period variation, possibly due to the presence of a third body. The orbital plane of the pair is

inclined Incline, inclined, inclining, or inclination may refer to: *Grade (slope), the tilt, steepness, or angle from horizontal of a topographic feature (hillside, meadow, etc.) or constructed element (road, railway, field, etc.) *Slope, the tilt, steepn ...

by an angle of 86.5° to the line of sight from the Earth, causing the white dwarf to undergo a deep eclipse every orbit. DQ Herculis is the prototype for a category of cataclysmic variable stars called

intermediate polar In astronomy, an intermediate polar (also called a DQ Herculis Star) is a type of cataclysmic variable, binary star system with a white dwarf and a cool main-sequence secondary star. In most cataclysmic variables, matter from the companion sta ...

s. The red dwarf has filled its Roche lobe and matter is being drawn off at the rate of , forming an

accretion disk An accretion disk is a structure (often a circumstellar disk) formed by diffuse material in orbital motion around a massive central body. The central body is typically a star. Friction, uneven irradiance, magnetohydrodynamic effects, and other fo ...

orbiting the primary. This disk has inferred temperatures ranging from 5,000 to . A bright spot in the inner disk appears to pulsate with a 71-second period. In this class of variables, the white dwarf is magnetized, directing infalling matter onto the magnetic poles. DQHerNebulaExpanding

The shell of ejected material from the nova outburst is visible as an emission nebula, similar in appearance to a planetary nebula. This roughly elliptical nebula had a size of 32.0 × 24.2 arc seconds as of 2018, and it is expanding at a rate of about 0.16 arc seconds per year.

In popular culture

The nova was one of the brightest objects observable in the night sky. In addition to scientific articles, and received significant coverage in popular news publications. Brad Ricca, an English professor at

Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...

, has suggested that Nova Herculis may have influenced the development of the origin story of the comic book superhero

Superman Superman is a superhero who appears in American comic books published by DC Comics. The character was created by writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster, and debuted in the comic book ''Action Comics'' #1 (cover-dated June 1938 and publi ...

References

External links

* http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclopedia/N/Nova_Herculis_1934.html {{DEFAULTSORT:DQ Herculis Novae Nova remnants M-type main-sequence stars Intermediate polars Hypothetical planetary systems Hercules (constellation) 1934 in science Herculis, DQ 19341213