V446 Herculis was a nova in the constellation

Hercules Hercules (, ) is the Roman equivalent of the Greek divine hero Heracles, son of Jupiter and the mortal Alcmena. In classical mythology, Hercules is famous for his strength and for his numerous far-ranging adventures. The Romans adapted the ...

in 1960. It reached

magnitude Magnitude may refer to: Mathematics *Euclidean vector, a quantity defined by both its magnitude and its direction *Magnitude (mathematics), the relative size of an object *Norm (mathematics), a term for the size or length of a vector *Order of ...

2.8. The nova was first observed by Olaf Hassel in the early morning hours of 7 March 1960, when it was a 5th magnitude star. Pre-discovery photographs showed that it was about three days past peak brightness, and had faded by 2 magnitudes during that time. The star was so near the border between the constellations of Hercules and Aquila that accurate measurements of its position were needed to determine which constellation contained it. V446 Herculis was the first nova to have the degree of linear polarization of its light measured. It was determined that the polarization did not arise from the star itself. Like all novae, V446 Herculis is a close binary star system with a "donor" star transferring matter to its white dwarf companion. In the case of V446 Herculis the donor star is a red dwarf and the pair's orbital period is 4.97 hours. Unlike many novae, V446 Herculis is not an eclipsing binary, but it does show

dwarf nova A U Geminorum-type variable star, or dwarf nova (pl. novae) is one of several types of cataclysmic variable star, consisting of a close binary star system in which one of the components is a white dwarf that accretes matter from its companion. Dwa ...

outbursts every 13 to 30 days.

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Novae Hercules (constellation) 1960 in science Herculis, V446 19600307 {{var-star-stub