AM Herculis

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AM Herculis is the prototype for a category of cataclysmic variable stars called polars, or AM Herculis stars. It is located in the constellation Hercules, and was discovered in 1923 by M. Wolf in Heidelberg, Germany and was then listed in the General Catalogue of Variable Stars as an irregular variable which ranged from 12th to 14th magnitude. In 1976, the astronomer S. Tapia discovered that light from the star is both linearly and circularly polarized , showing that there was a strong magnetic field surrounding the system and revealing that the system was more complex than previously thought.

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