Leonid 復習
人工流星を見ることができる未来が近づいてきているようです。
Fireworks of the future? Japan to create fake shooting stars
It was Lena Okajima's childhood in Tottori, roughly 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of Osaka, that sparked the ALE founder's fascination with space.
The least populous prefecture in Japan, Tottori enjoys clear night skies and frequent displays of shooting stars, most notably the spectacular annual Leonid meteor shower.
"A lot of people have thought about (creating fake meteor showers) but Okajima was the first one to invest years of research into this," says Rie Yamamoto, ALE's global strategy director.
"Okajima watched meteor showers when she was younger, but living in Tokyo (as an adult) she couldn't really see them, so that played a part in her inspiration."
A former investment banker with a PhD in astronomy, in 2011 Okajima founded ALE, garnering private funding and collaborating with academics from three academic institutions.
Her ambition? To bring shooting stars to Tokyo.
（一部抜粋）
http://edition.cnn.com/2016/10/23/asia/on-japan-artificial-meteors/index.html
今回は Leonidを取り上げます。
Oxford Dictionary of English (Second Edition Reserved, Oxford University Press)によると、Leonid(複数形)で “an annual meteor shower with a radiant in the constellation Leo, reaching a peak about 17 November”と載っておりました。
ちなみに “Leonid” のleoは、ラテン語のleo, leonが語源とされております。
『ジーニアス英和辞典』（第五版，大修館）で調べたところ、「しし座流星群」と書かれておりました。またLeoのみで「しし座」を意味します。
Leonidのみでも「しし座流星群」を表しますが、記事内では “Leonid meteor shower”と書かれております。 “meteor shower”は「流星雨」を意味し、「流星群の特に著しく多いもの」を指します。（『ジーニアス英和大辞典』大修館、『デジタル大辞泉』小学館）
以前のブログでも取り上げられておりましたので、そちらもご覧になってください。（Gomez）
