What is the constellation Hercules?
Hercules (Hercules) is the fifth largest of the 88 modern constellations, and one of the Ptolemaic constellations.
Main Stars Hercules
αHercules
Despite its alpha Hercules designation, it is but the constellation’s fifth star in apparent magnitude, probably because it appears to represent the hero’s head.
Alfa is a red supergiant more than 4 au in diameter. It is a multiple star: it has a companion of the fifth magnitude that is also double at 550 au.
Alpha Hercules regularly loses matter in the form of a strong stellar wind that surrounds its companions despite being quite distant.
Kornephoros β Hercules
Beta Hercules is the first star in the constellation with a magnitude of 2.78, its name, in Greek, means mace bearer, the traditional attribute of Hercules.
Other stars
Despite the size of this constellation, none of its stars are the first or the second magnitude. ζ Hercules (magnitude 2.81), δ Hercules (magnitude 3.14) and μ Hercules (magnitude 3.42) are the other notable stars.
The star 14 Hercules has an extrasolar planet, 3.3 times more massive than Jupiter and orbits the star in 1619 days at an average distance of 2.5 au.
Hercules Deep Sky Objects
The constellation Hercules contains M13, the brightest globular cluster in the Northern Hemisphere, and the globular cluster M92.
History of the Hercules constellation
It is one of the 48 constellations recorded by Ptolemy in his Almagest. Hercules is named after the Greek hero Heracles. The stars of Hercules appear to form a prone or kneeling man, which is what originally gave the constellation its name.