Short answers, pulled from the story.
The constellation Hercules appears in the second-century catalog of astronomer Ptolemy as one of 48 original constellations. Modern astronomy recognizes it today among 88 official groupings.
Eugène Delporte defined the official boundaries of Hercules in 1930 using a polygon of 32 segments. The constellation covers 1225.1 square degrees representing 2.970% of the night sky.
Alpha Herculis traditionally bears the name Rasalgethi meaning the kneeler's head. This triple star system sits 359 light-years from Earth.
Fifteen stars within Hercules host known extrasolar planets. HD 149026 contains a transiting hot Jupiter planet while HD 154345 hosts a long-period planet spanning 4.18 AU over 9.095 years.
AT2018cow represents a large astronomical explosion detected on the 16th of June 2018. Astronomers worldwide generated significant interest regarding this event tentatively named Supernova 2018cow.