- 20-year-old faces murder charges following Hercules pursuit that killed mother, 6-year-old twin KTVU FOX 2 San Francisco
- 6-year-old dies days after crash with driver fleeing cops kills his mom, CA police say Sacramento Bee
- Contra Costa DA charges suspect in fatal Hercules chase, collision that killed a mother and her 6-year-old son East Bay Times
- Murder Charges Filed in Car Chase That Killed Mom, Son The San Francisco Standard
- Update: Suspect in fatal Rodeo crash that killed mother and child charged with murder CBS San Francisco
- View Full Coverage on Google News
Tag Archives: Hercules
Webb Telescope Captures Countless Galaxies in New Image
The European Space Agency has released its image of the month for January, and it is (perhaps unsurprisingly) a stunning shot from the Webb Space Telescope.
At the bottom of the image is LEDA 2046648, a spiral galaxy over one billion light-years from Earth in the constellation Hercules. Behind LEDA is a field of more distant galaxies, ranging from spiral shapes to pinpricks of light in the distant universe.
Webb launched from French Guiana in December 2021; its scientific observations of the cosmos began in July. Webb has imaged distant galaxies, exoplanets, and even shed new light on worlds in our local solar system.
Though this image was only just released, it was taken during the commissioning process for one of Webb’s instruments, the Near-Infrared Imager and Slitless Spectrograph (NIRISS), according to an ESA release. While NIRISS was focused on a white dwarf—the core remnant of a star—Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) turned its focus to LEDA 2046648 and its environs in the night sky.
One of Webb’s primary objectives in looking at the distant universe is to better understand how the first stars and galaxies formed. To that end, the telescope is looking at some of the most ancient light in the universe, primarily through its instruments NIRCam and MIRI.
G/O Media may get a commission
The image does contains hundreds of light sources our eye can perceive, but the infrared data from which the image was formed certainly records many more galaxies.
Webb’s deep field imagery is what enables scientists to see some of the most ancient light in the universe, often capitalizing on gravitational lensing (the magnification of distant light due to the gravitational warping of spacetime) to see particularly ancient sources.
Though this shot of LEDA 2046648 is not a deep field, it evokes a similar feeling: awe, at the huge scale of the cosmos, and (if only briefly) the realization that our minds can only comprehend a fraction of it.
More: Zoom in on Webb Telescope’s Biggest Image Yet
The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
There are comets, and then there are great comets. The blaze that went across the skies in 1743 and 1744 was definitely one of the later.
As it hurtled past the Earth toward the Sun, the comet was reportedly bright enough to be seen in daylight and outshone Venus in the evening sky. It also developed a lengthy and clearly visible double-tail, which was already extremely unusual. Then, as it reached perihelion and swung around the Sun, the comet’s tail split into six clearly defined rays. In the morning, when the head of the comet was still hidden below the horizon, these six tails were bright and visible, reaching up into the sky as a kind if “fan” that seemed to be coming from the Sun.
Just why the comet gave this appearance is still something of a mystery. It may be that there was actually only one or two much broader tails, but they had areas darkened by heavy dust. In any case, it was recorded by astronomers around the world, including in China, where court astronomers claimed the comet actually made a crackling noise. This was a very odd comet.
A young Catherine the not-yet Great observed the comet as she was traveling to Russia to be wed. She seemed to take it as being all about proclaiming her future greatness because … of course she did.
Back in France, young Messier seems to have also seen the comet, and it seems to have gone a long way in shoving him toward a future in astronomy, rather than the surely fascinating career of walking people into a courtroom. Messier was able to secure a position as an assistant to Joseph-Nicolas Delisle who was the official astronomer of the French Navy (charting a course, etc.) and perhaps more importantly, filthy rich.
Delisle had a freshly-built observatory, and the young Messier settled into quickly. Over the next decade, he made a number of significant discoveries, earning himself a senior position with the government as well as a string of honorifics and scientific society memberships. As might be expected, comets remained a particular interest of Messier, and he seemed to be good at winkling out a distant comet before other astronomers managed to get their name on the approaching snowball. King Louis XV even gave Messier the absolutely delightful nickname of “the Ferret of Comets” which, if you’re going to have one title carved on your tombstone, that should be the one.
But it was Messier’s later work with deep sky objects for which he is best remembered today. Starting in 1771, Messier began assembling a catalog of some of those fuzzy spots in the night sky—things that we recognize today as nebula, galaxies, and star clusters. The first list included 45 such objects. The final list, which including some objects pulled from Messier’s footnotes and marginalia, totaled 110. These became known as the Messier objects.
Ever since, finding these Messier objects has been something of a right of passage for astronomers. Something like climbing the seven summits in mountain climbing. Except with significantly less chance of dying in an avalanche.
And … okay, Messier 13 turns out to be something variously known as the Hercules star cluster, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, or the Hercules Globular Cluster. Messier wasn’t actually the first to spot M13. That credit goes to the other comet guy, Edmund Halley, who came across it in 1714. But Messier put it in the catalog,
M13 is a group of several hundred thousand stars, but it is not a galaxy. In fact, its one of many such blobs orbiting around our good old Milky Way. It’s located about 22,500 light years from Earth. If you want to find it, look where the name suggests — in the constellation Hercules. But bring a telescope. Despite the number of stars in this cluster, it has a visual magnitude of over 11, too faint to see with the naked eye.
M13 is about 100x more dense with stars than the neighborhood around Earth. There are only about 135 stars within 50 light years of Earth. It’s interesting to contemplate what a sky with a couple of orders of magnitude more close neighbors might look like on a clear night. The stars in M13 are close enough together than every now and then a couple end up merging into a short-lived blue-white giant.
Something about M13 has made the Hercules globular cluster a frequent subject of science fiction novels. That may be why when the SETI folks at the gone-but-not-forgotten Arecibo telescope were looking for a target for a test message in 1974, they picked M13. Somewhere between here and there is a message containing basic information about math, then expands on that to describe the structure of atoms, then elements, then DNA, then some basic facts about human life.
If someone is out there, and they have a very good receiver, they’ll have mail in about 22,450 years.
As with most of the images I run in this feature, the top image was taken on my tiny-but-clever Vespera telescope. And, as usual with this feature, I expect some of you have done a lot better. But probably not better than this…
Countdown to Webb: “NASA, in partnership with ESA and CSA, will release the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a televised broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, July 12.” And we’ll be covering it live.
The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules
There are comets, and then there are great comets. The blaze that went across the skies in 1743 and 1744 was definitely one of the later.
As it hurtled past the Earth toward the Sun, the comet was reportedly bright enough to be seen in daylight and outshone Venus in the evening sky. It also developed a lengthy and clearly visible double-tail, which was already extremely unusual. Then, as it reached perihelion and swung around the Sun, the comet’s tail split into six clearly defined rays. In the morning, when the head of the comet was still hidden below the horizon, these six tails were bright and visible, reaching up into the sky as a kind if “fan” that seemed to be coming from the Sun.
Just why the comet gave this appearance is still something of a mystery. It may be that there was actually only one or two much broader tails, but they had areas darkened by heavy dust. In any case, it was recorded by astronomers around the world, including in China, where court astronomers claimed the comet actually made a crackling noise. This was a very odd comet.
A young Catherine the not-yet Great observed the comet as she was traveling to Russia to be wed. She seemed to take it as being all about proclaiming her future greatness because … of course she did.
Back in France, young Messier seems to have also seen the comet, and it seems to have gone a long way in shoving him toward a future in astronomy, rather than the surely fascinating career of walking people into a courtroom. Messier was able to secure a position as an assistant to Joseph-Nicolas Delisle who was the official astronomer of the French Navy (charting a course, etc.) and perhaps more importantly, filthy rich.
Delisle had a freshly-built observatory, and the young Messier settled into quickly. Over the next decade, he made a number of significant discoveries, earning himself a senior position with the government as well as a string of honorifics and scientific society memberships. As might be expected, comets remained a particular interest of Messier, and he seemed to be good at winkling out a distant comet before other astronomers managed to get their name on the approaching snowball. King Louis XV even gave Messier the absolutely delightful nickname of “the Ferret of Comets” which, if you’re going to have one title carved on your tombstone, that should be the one.
But it was Messier’s later work with deep sky objects for which he is best remembered today. Starting in 1771, Messier began assembling a catalog of some of those fuzzy spots in the night sky—things that we recognize today as nebula, galaxies, and star clusters. The first list included 45 such objects. The final list, which including some objects pulled from Messier’s footnotes and marginalia, totaled 110. These became known as the Messier objects.
Ever since, finding these Messier objects has been something of a right of passage for astronomers. Something like climbing the seven summits in mountain climbing. Except with significantly less chance of dying in an avalanche.
And … okay, Messier 13 turns out to be something variously known as the Hercules star cluster, the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, or the Hercules Globular Cluster. Messier wasn’t actually the first to spot M13. That credit goes to the other comet guy, Edmund Halley, who came across it in 1714. But Messier put it in the catalog,
M13 is a group of several hundred thousand stars, but it is not a galaxy. In fact, its one of many such blobs orbiting around our good old Milky Way. It’s located about 22,500 light years from Earth. If you want to find it, look where the name suggests — in the constellation Hercules. But bring a telescope. Despite the number of stars in this cluster, it has a visual magnitude of over 11, too faint to see with the naked eye.
M13 is about 100x more dense with stars than the neighborhood around Earth. There are only about 135 stars within 50 light years of Earth. It’s interesting to contemplate what a sky with a couple of orders of magnitude more close neighbors might look like on a clear night. The stars in M13 are close enough together than every now and then a couple end up merging into a short-lived blue-white giant.
Something about M13 has made the Hercules globular cluster a frequent subject of science fiction novels. That may be why when the SETI folks at the gone-but-not-forgotten Arecibo telescope were looking for a target for a test message in 1974, they picked M13. Somewhere between here and there is a message containing basic information about math, then expands on that to describe the structure of atoms, then elements, then DNA, then some basic facts about human life.
If someone is out there, and they have a very good receiver, they’ll have mail in about 22,450 years.
As with most of the images I run in this feature, the top image was taken on my tiny-but-clever Vespera telescope. And, as usual with this feature, I expect some of you have done a lot better. But probably not better than this…
Countdown to Webb: “NASA, in partnership with ESA and CSA, will release the James Webb Space Telescope’s first full-color images and spectroscopic data during a televised broadcast beginning at 10:30 a.m. ET on Tuesday, July 12.” And we’ll be covering it live.
A Planetary Breakup, Hercules Star Cluster, and the Harp Constellation
Skywatchers in June will want to see the planets Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, the Hercules Cluster, and the constellation Lyra.
What’s Up for June? A planetary breakup, prime viewing for a well-known star cluster, and the constellation Lyra.
Skywatching highlights for June 2022 include the gathering of four naked-eye planets (
The gathering of four naked-eye planets we’ve been enjoying in the morning sky for the past few months – including several close conjunctions, is beginning to break up. Over the next few months, Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus will appear increasingly spread out across the morning sky – so much so that Venus and Saturn will make their exits as morning objects for most observers by September.
Look for this increasingly spaced out planetary precession in June, and note that the crescent moon jumps into the lineup on the morning of the 23rd.
Planets continue to make a show in the morning before sunrise in June, with the Moon joining the lineup on the 23rd. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
June is an excellent time to observe one of the best-known globular star clusters – M13, also known as the Hercules Cluster. Globular clusters are spherical collections of stars, tightly packed together in their centers. M13 itself contains several hundred thousand stars.
Globular clusters are also extremely old. The stars in M13 are thought to be around 12 billion years old, which is approaching the age of the universe itself. Our home galaxy, the
Find M13 in Hercules by first locating the stars that form the Keystone, about a third of the way between bright stars Vega and Arcturus. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Now, the Hercules Cluster is best observed with a telescope, and larger telescopes will allow you to see more of the cluster’s stars. But you can also find it with a pair of binoculars, where it’ll look like a hazy little spot.
Find M13 in the constellation Hercules, which is high in the east in the first couple of hours after dark in June.
This image, taken by the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope, shows the core of the great globular cluster Messier 13 and provides an extraordinarily clear view of the hundreds of thousands of stars in the cluster, one of the brightest and best known in the sky. Just 25,000 light-years away and about 145 light-years in diameter, Messier 13 has drawn the eye since its discovery by Edmund Halley, the noted British astronomer, in 1714. The cluster lies in the constellation of Hercules and is so bright that under the right conditions it is even visible to the unaided eye. Credit: ESA/Hubble and NASA
First look for the bright stars Vega and Arcturus.
Then find the four stars that comprise “the Keystone,” which is the pattern making up the central part of Hercules.
You’ll find M13 about a third of the way between the two stars on the western, or leading, side of the Keystone.
So check out the Great Globular Cluster in Hercules, M13, in June, and find yourself staring at an ancient gathering of stars that soars high above the Milky Way.
Lyra is easy to locate in the sky, thanks to the brightness of Vega, which is part of the Summer Triangle asterism. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech
Finally in June, a quick introduction to one of the smaller constellations that’s home to one of the brightest stars.
That’s the constellation Lyra.
It represents a lyre, or harp, played by the musician Orpheus in Greek mythology.
In Arab cultures, as well as ancient Egypt and India, Lyra was seen as an eagle.
And the Inca of South America saw it as a llama.
Find Lyra by looking for Vega, which is the westernmost of the three bright stars in the Summer Triangle.
This image shows the dramatic shape and color of the Ring Nebula, otherwise known as Messier 57. From Earth’s perspective, the nebula looks like a simple elliptical shape with a shaggy boundary. However, observations combining existing ground-based data with new NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope data show that the nebula is shaped like a distorted doughnut. This doughnut has a rugby-ball-shaped region of lower-density material slotted into its central “gap,” stretching towards and away from us. It is located about 2,500 light years from Earth in the Lyra Constellation. Credit: NASA, ESA, and C. Robert O’Dell (Vanderbilt University)
In the Northern Hemisphere, you’ll find it halfway up the eastern sky in the first couple of hours after dark in June.
Vega is by far the brightest star in Lyra.
It’s the fifth brightest star in the sky and the second brightest in the Northern Hemisphere, after Sirius.
A pair of binoculars will help you see the others stars in Lyra, which form a sort of parallelogram hanging beneath it.
It’s sometimes described as looking a bit like a diamond ring, with Vega as the diamond.
And that’s not the only ring in Lyra. It’s also home to the famous Ring Nebula, where a star has blown off most of its outer layers, leaving behind a remnant star known as a