ariel
n. uncountablen. a small, bright star in the constellation Taurus. It is one of the brightest stars in the night sky.
n. the brightest star in the constellation Taurus, a blue-white giant visible in the winter sky.
Ariel shines brightly in the winter sky.
Astronomers used Ariel to calibrate their new telescope before observing distant galaxies.
The intense blue-white light of Ariel serves as a reliable reference point for amateur astronomers mapping the winter constellations.
From Biblical Hebrew אֲרִיאֵל (ari'él, a compound of אֲרִי (arí, “lion”) + אֵל (él, “God”), literally “lion of God”). * (moon of Uranus): All of Uranus’s moons are named after characters created by William Shakespeare or Alexander Pope. The names of all four satellites of Uranus then known were suggested by John Herschel in 1852 at the request of William Lassell, though it is uncertain if Herschel devised the names, or if Lassell did so and then sought Herschel’s permission. Ariel is the name of the leading sylph in Pope’s The Rape of the Lock and also the spirit who serves Prospero in Shakespeare’s The Tempest.