We present imaging of the recently discovered Hercules Milky Way satellite and its surrounding regions to study its structure , star formation history and to thoroughly search for signs of disruption .
We robustly determine the distance , luminosity , size and morphology of Hercules utilizing a bootstrap approach to characterize our uncertainties .
We derive a distance to Hercules of 133 \pm 6 kpc via a comparison to empirical and theoretical isochrones .
As previous studies have found , Hercules is very elongated , with \epsilon = 0.67 \pm 0.03 and a half light radius of r _ { h } \simeq 230 pc .
Using the color magnitude fitting package StarFISH , we determine that Hercules is old ( > 12 Gyr ) and metal poor ( [ Fe / H ] \sim - 2.0 ) , with a spread in metallicity , in agreement with previous spectroscopic work .
We infer a total absolute magnitude of M _ { V } = -5.3 \pm 0.4 .
Our innovative search for external Hercules structure both in the plane of the sky and along the line of sight yields some evidence that Hercules is embedded in a larger stream of stars .
A clear stellar extension is seen to the Northwest with several additional candidate stellar overdensities along the position angle of Hercules out to \sim 35 ’ ( \sim 1.3 kpc ) .
While the association of any of the individual stellar overdensities with Hercules is difficult to determine , we do show that the summed color magnitude diagram of all three is consistent with Hercules ’ stellar population .
Finally , we estimate that any change in the distance to Hercules across its face is at most \sim 6 kpc ; and the data are consistent with Hercules being at the same distance throughout .