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Astronomy Acronyms

Posted on August 5th, 2007 by Admin.
Categories: Astronomy Acronyms.

List of astronomy acronyms

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 0-9
1RXH -  1st ROSAT X-ray HRI, a catalog of sources detected by ROSAT in pointed observations with its High Resolution Imager
1RXS -  1ROSAT X-ray Survey, a catalog of sources detected by ROSAT in an all-sky survey
2MASP -  Two-Micron All Sky Survey Prototype, an early version of the 2MASS catalog
2MASS -  Two-Micron All Sky Survey, an all-sky survey in the near-infrared; also used to describe the catalog of sources from the survey
2MASSI -  Two-Micron All Sky Survey, Incremental release, one of the versions of the 2MASS catalog
2MASSW -  Two-Micron All Sky Survey, Working database, one of the versions of the 2MASS catalog

 A
A&A -  Astronomy & Astrophysics, a European scientific journal
AAO -  Anglo-Australian Observatory
AAT -  Anglo-Australian Telescope
AAS -  American Astronomical Society
AAVSO -  American Association of Variable Star Observers
ABRIXAS -  A BRoadband Imaging X-ray All-sky Survey
AC -  Catalogue Astrographique
ACE -  Advanced Composition Explorer
ACIS -  Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer, an instrument on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory
ACM -  Asteroids, Comets, and Meteors
ACP -  - Aerosol Collector and Pyrolyser, an instrument on the Huygens probe
ACS -  Advanced Camera for Surveys, an instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope
ACV -  Alpha Canes Venatici, a class of rotating variable stars with strong magnetic fields named after Alpha Canum Venaticorum (Cor Caroli), the archetype for the class
ACYG -  Alpha CYGni, a class of rotating variable stars named after Alpha Cygni (Deneb), the archetype for the class
ADAF -  Advection Dominated Accretion Flow, a mechanism by which matter is slowly accreted onto a black hole
ADC -  Astronomical Data Center
ADEC -  Astrophysics Data Centers Executive Council, an organization that provides oversight for the Astrophysics Data and Information Services
ADF -  Astrophysics Data Facility
ADS -  Aitken Double Stars
ADIS -  Astrophysics Data and Information Services
ADS -  Astrophysics Data Service, an organization that maintains an online database of scientific articles
AFGL -  Air Force Geophysics Laboratory
AFOEV -  Association Francaise des Observateurs d’Etoiles Variables
AG -  Astronomische Gesellschaft
AGAPE -  Andromeda Galaxy and Amplified Pixels Experiment, a search for microlenses in front of the Andromeda Galaxy
AGB -  Asymptotic Giant Branch, a description for a type of red giant star
AGK -  Astronomische Gesellschaft Katalog
AGN -  Active Galactic Nucleus
AGU -  American Geophysical Union
AIM -  Aeronomy of Ice in the Mesosphere, a spacecraft that will study the Noctilucent clouds
AIPS -  Astronomical Image Processing System
AJ -  Astronomical Journal
ALaMO -  Automated Lunar and Meteor Observatory
ALEXIS -  Array of Low Energy X-ray Imaging Sensors
ALPO -  Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers
ALMA -  Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array
AMANDA -  Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array, a neutrino telescope
AMASE -  Astrophysics Multi-spectral Archive Search Engine
AMS -  American Meteor Society
AN -  Astronomische Nachrichten, a German scientific journal
ANS -  Astronomical Netherlands Satellite
ANS -  Astro News Service
ANSI -  American National Standards Institute
AO -  Adaptive Optics
AOR -  Astronomical Observation Request
ApJ -  Astrophysical Journal
ApJL -  Astrophysical Journal Letters
ApJS -  Astrophysical Journal Supplement Series
APM - , Automatic Plate Measuring machine, describes both a machine for making measurements from photographic plates and a catalog based on measurements by the machine
APOD -  Astronomy Picture of the Day
APT -  Automated Patrol Telescope
ARC -  Ames Research Center
ARC -  Astrophysical Research Consortium
ASA -  Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
ASI -  Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
ASIAA -  Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ASP -  Astronomical Society of the Pacific
ASTRO -  Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations
ATCA -  Australia Telescope Compact Array
AU - (measurement) Astronomical Unit, the distance between the Earth and the Sun
AUASS -  Arab Union for Astronomy and Space Sciences
AURA -  Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
AWCA -  American Workshop on Cometary Astronomy, an older name for the International Workshop on Cometary Astronomy
AXP -  Anomalous X-Ray Pulsar
AXAF -  Advanced X-ray Astrophysics Facility, an older name for the Chandra X-ray Observatory

 B
B -  Barnard catalog
BAA -  British Astronomical Association
BAAS -  Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society
BAC -  Bordeaux Astrographic Catalog
BAO -  Beijing Astronomical Observatory
BASIS -  Burst and All Sky Imaging Survey
BAT -  Burst Alert Telescope, an instrument on SWIFT
BATC -  Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut, the name of a multi-wavelenght sky survey
BATSE -  Burst and Transient Source Experiment, an instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
BATTeRS -  Bisei Asteroid Tracking Telescopes for Rapid Survey
BB -  Black Body
BBXRT -  Broad Band X-Ray Telescope
BCD -  Blue Compact Dwarf
BCD -  Basic Calibrated Data, data produced after basic processing
BCEP -  Beta CEPhei, a class of pulsating variable stars for which Beta Cephei is the archetypal object
also BCE
BCG -  Blue Compact Galaxy, another name for a blue compact dwarf
BCVS -  Bibliographic Catalogue of Variable Stars
BD -  Bonner Durchmusterung
BD -  Brown Dwarf
BEN -  Jack Bennett catalog, a catalog of deep-sky objects for amateur astronomers
BF -  Broadening Function
BH -  Black Hole
BHB -  Blue Horizontal Branch, a description for a type of luminous star
BHC -  Black Hole Candidate
BHXRT -  Black Hole X-Ray Transient
also BHXT
BIMA -  Berkeley Illinois Maryland Array, a microwave telescope
BIS -  British Interplanetary Society
BITP -  - Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, a Ukrainian research institute
BLLAC -  BL LACertae, a class of active galaxies for which BL Lacertae is the archetypal object
also BLL
BLAST -  - Balloon-borne Large Aperture Submillimeter Telescope
BNSC -  British National Space Centre
BOAO -  Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, in Korea
BPM -  Bruce Proper Motion
BSG -  Blue Super Giant
BSS -  Blue Straggler Star
also BS
BSS -  Bigelow Sky Survey
BY -  BY Draconis, a class of rotating variable stars for which BY Draconis is the archetypal object

 C
CADC -  Canadian Astronomy Data Centre
CAHA -  Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán, a German-Spanish Astronomical Centre
CAPS -  CAssini Plasma Spectrometer, an instrument on the Cassini spacecraft
CARA -  California Association for Research in Astronomy
CARA -  Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica
CASS -  Center for Advanced Space Studies
CBR -  Cosmic Background Radiation
CC -  Candidate Companion, a newly detected observed object that initially appears to orbit another celestial object
CCD -  Charge Coupled Device
CCD -  - Color-Color Diagram, a plot that compares the differences between magnitudes in different wave bands
CCDM -  Catalog of Components of Double and Multiple Stars
CCO -  Catalogue of Cometary Orbits
CCO -  Central Compact Object, a compact star in the center of a planetary nebulae
CCS -  Cool Carbon Star
CD -  Cordoba Durchmusterung
CDIMP -  Catalogue of Discoveries and Identifications of Minor Planets
CDM -  Cold Dark Matter, used to describe models for structure formation in the universe that include “cold” particles such as WIMPs as dark matter
CDS -  Centre de Données astronomiques de Strasbourg
CELT -  - California Extremely Large Telescope, an older name for the Thirty Meter Telescope
CEMP -  Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor, a type of carbon star
CEMP-no -  Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor star with no enhancement of elements produced by the r-process or s-process nucleosynthesis
CEMP-r -  Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor star with an enhancement of elements produced by r-process nucleosynthesis
CEMP-s -  Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor star with an enhancement of elements produced by s-process nucleosynthesis
CEMP-r/s -  Carbon-Enhanced Metal-Poor star with an enhancement of elements produced by both r-process and s-process nucleosynthesis
CEP -  CEPheid, a type of pulsating variable star
CEPS -  Center for Earth and Planetary Studies
CfA -  Center for Astrophysics
CFHT -  Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
CFRS - , Canada-France Redshift Survey
CG -  Center of Gravity
CG -  Cometary Globule, a Bok globule that show signs of a tail-like extension
CG -  Compact Galaxy
CGCS -  Cool Galactic Carbon Star
CGRO -  Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
CGSS -  Catalogue of Galactic S Stars
CHARA -  Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy
CIAO -  Chandra Interactive Analysis of Observations, software for processing Chandra X-ray Observatory data
CIAO -  Coronagraphic Imager with Adaptive Optics, an instrument for the Subaru Telescope
CIBR -  Cosmic Infrared Background Radiation
also CIB
CIDA -  Cometary Interplanetary Dust Analyzer, an instrument on the Stardust spacecraft
CINEOS -  Campo Imperatore Near-Earth Object Survey
CIO -  Catalog of Infrared Observations
CISCO -  Cooled Infrared Spectrograph and Camera for OHS, an instrument for the Subaru Telescope
CM -  Center of Mass
CMBR -  Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
also CMB, CBR, MBR
CMC -  Carlsberg Meridian Catalogue
CMD -  Color-Magnitude Diagram, commonly used to describe the Hertzsprung-Russell diagram or similar diagrams
also CM
CNB -  Cosmic Neutrino Background
CNES -  Centre Nationale d’Etudes Spatiales, the French Space Agency
CNO -  Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen, a sequence of nuclear fusion processes
CNR -  Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche
CNSR -  Comet Nucleus Sample Return
COBE -  Cosmic Background Explorer, a space telescope used to study the cosmic microwave background radiation
COHSI -  Cambridge OH-Suppression Instrument
Col -  Collinder
COMICS -  COoled Mid-Infrared Camera and Spectrometer, an instrument for the Subaru Telescope
CGRO -  COMPton TELescope, another name for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
COROT -  COnvection ROtation and planetary Transits, a space telescope for detecting extrasolar planets
COSPAR -  COmmittee on SPAce Research
COSTAR -  Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, corrective optics for the Hubble Space Telescope
CP -  Chemically Peculiar, a description for stars withpeculiar chemical compositions
CPD -  Cape Photographic Durchmusterung
CRAF -  Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby
CSA -  Canadian Space Agency
CSBN -  Committee for Small-Body Nomenclature
CSE -  Circumstellar Envelope, structural descriptions of a planetary nebula
CSI -  Catalog of Stellar Identification, a compilation of the catalogs, BD, CD, and CPD
CSO -  Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
CSPN -  Central Star of Planetary Nebula
also CSPNe (plural form of CSPN)
CSS -  Catalina Sky Survey
CST -  ConStanT, used to describe non-variable stars
CSV -  Catalog of Suspected Variables
CTIO - (telescope/organization) Cerro Tololo Interamerican Observatory
CTTS -  Classical T-Tauri Star
CV -  Cataclysmic Variable, a type of variable binary star system that contains a white dwarf and a companion star that changes
CW -  Cepheid W Virginis, a class of Cepheids named after W Virginis, the archetype for the class
CWA -  Cepheid W Virginis A, a subclass of CW stars that that vary in brightness on timescales of less than 8 days
CWB -  Cepheid W Virginis B, a subclass of CW stars that vary in brightness on timescales greater than 8 days
CXBR -  Cosmic X-ray Background Radiation
CXO -  Chandra X-ray Observation, a catalog based from the Chandra space telescope

 D
DAO -  Dominion Astrophysical Observatory
DCEP -  Delta CEPhei, a class of Cepheids named after Delta Cephei, the archetype for the class
DDEB - (celectial object) Double-lined eclipsing binary
DENIS -  DEep Near Infrared Survey
DENIS-P -  DEep Near Infrared Survey, Provisory designation
DES -  Deep Ecliptic Survey
DIB -  Diffuse Instellar Band, an absorption feature in stellar spectra with an interstellar origin
DISR -  - Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, an instrument on the Huygens probe
DN -  Dwarf Nova
DNS -  Double Neutron Star, another name for a binary neutron star system
DPOSS -  Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
DS -  Dwarf Star
DSCT - Delta SCuTi, a class of pulsating variable stars named after Delta Scuti, the archetype for the class
DSN -  Deep Space Network, a network of radio antennae used for communicating to spacecraft
DSS -  Digitized Sky Survey
DWE -  - Doppler Wind Experiment, an instrument on the Huygens probe

 E
E -  Eclipsing, used to describe a binary star system with variable brightness in which the stars eclipse each other
EA -  Eclipsing Algol, a class of eclipsing binary stars named after Algol, the archetype for the class
EB -  Eclipsing Beta Lyrae, a class of eclipsing binary stars named after Beta Lyrae, the archetype for the class
EW -  Eclipsing W Ursa Majoris, a class of eclipsing binary stars named after W Ursa Majoris, the archetype for the class
E-ELT -  - European Extremely Large Telescope
EAPSNET -  - East-Asian Planet Search Network
EC -  Embedded Cluster, a star cluster that is partially or fully embedded in interstellar gas or dust
ECA -  Earth Crossing Asteroid
EGG -  Evaporating Gaseous Globule
EGGR -  Eggen & Greenstein, a catalog of mostly white dwarfs
EGP -  Extrasolar Giant Planet
EGRET -  Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope, another name for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
EHB -  Extreme Horizontal Branch, the description for a type of hot, evolved star
EJASA -  Electronic Journal of the Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
EKBO -  Edgeworth-Kuiper Belt Object, an alternative name for Kuiper Belt Objects
ELIAS -  European Large Area ISO Survey, a survey of high redshift galaxies performed with the Infrared Space Observatory (ISO)
EMP -  Ephemerides of Minor Planets
EMP -  Extremely Metal-Poor, a description for stars that contain few elements other than hydrogen and helium
ENACS -  ESO Nearby Abell Cluster Survey, a survey of galaxy clusters
ERO -  Extremely Red Object, a name applied to galaxies with red spectra
ESA -  European Space Agency
ESO -  European Southern Observatory
ESTEC -  European Space research and TEchnology Centre
EUV -  Extreme UltraViolet
EUVE -  Extreme UltraViolet Explorer, an ultraviolet space telescope
EVN -  European VLBI Network

 F
FAME -  Full-sky Astrometric Mapping Explorer
FASTT -  Flagstaff Astrometric Scanning Transit Telescope
FCC -  Fornax Cluster Catalog, a catalog of galaxies in the Fornax Cluster
FEB -  Falling-Evaporating Body, a solid planetary object that is being evaporated by the stellar wind
FGS -  Fine Guidance Sensors, an instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope
FHST -  Fixed Head Star Trackers, an instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope
FIR -  Far InfraRed
FIRST -  Faint Images of the Radio Sky at Twenty-centimeters, a radio survey of the sky with the Very Large Array
FIRST -  Far InfraRed and Submillimeter Space Telescope, an older name for the Herschel Space Observatory
FITS -  Flexible Image Transport System, the format commonly used for scientific astronomy images
FLOAT -  Fibre-Linked Optical Array Telescope
FLWO -  Fred L. Whipple Observatory
FMO -  Fast Moving Object, a description for asteroids so close to the Earth that they appear to be moving very fast
FOC -  Faint Object Camera, a camera formerly on the Hubble Space Telescope
FOCAS -  Faint Object Camera And Spectrograph, an instrument for the Subaru Telescope
FOS -  Faint Object Spectrograph, a spectrometer formerly on the Hubble Space Telescope
FOV -  Field Of View
FRED -  Fast Rise Exponential Decay, used to describe the variations in the luminosity of gamma ray bursts over time
FSC -  Faint Source Catalogue, one of the catalogs produced using Infrared Astronomical Satellite data
FTL -  Faster Than Light
FUOR -  FU Orionis objects, a class of variable pre-main sequence stars named after FU Orionis, the archetype for the class
also FU
FUSE -  Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer, an ultraviolet space telescope
FUVITA -  Far UltraViolet Imaging Telescope Array, an ultraviolet imager for the Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma mission
FWHM -  Full Width at Half Maximum, used to describe telescopes’ resolution
FWZI -  Full Width at Zero Intensity, used to describe telescopes’ resolution

 G
G -  Giclas, a catalog of nearby stars
GAIA -  Global Astrometric Interferometer for Astrophysics, a planned space telescope that will be used to make high-precision measurements of stars
GALEX -  Galaxy Evolution Explorer, an ultraviolet space telescope
GASP -  Guide star Astrometric Support Package
GAT -  AO , catalog of G. Gatewood’s observations
GBT -  Green Bank Telescope
GC -  General Catalog, a catalog of clusters, nebulae, and galaxies created by John Herschel and now superseded by the New Galactic Catalogue
GCAS -  Gamma CASsiopeiae, a class of eruptive variable stars named after Gamma Cassiopeiae, the archetype for the class
GCMS -  - Gas Chromatograph and Mass Spectrometer, an instrument on the Huygens probe
also GC/MS
GCN -  GRB Coordinates Network
GCR -  Galactic Cosmic Rays
GCVS -  the General Catalog of Variable Stars
GD -  Giclas Dwarf, a catalog of white dwarf
GDS -  Great Dark Spot, a transient feature in the clouds of Neptune
GEM -  Galactic Emission Mapping
GEM -  Galileo Europa Mission, the description for the science observation program of Europa performed by the Galileo spacecraft
GEM -  Giotto Extended Mission, the description for the extended operations of the Giotto spacecraft
GEMS -  Group Evolution Multi-wavelength Study
GEMSS -  Global Exoplanet M-dwarf Search-Survey, a search for exoplanets around m-dwarf stars
GEODDS -  Ground-based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance, a network of telescopes used in a United States Air Force program for observing space junk
GH -  Giclas Hyades, a catalog of stars in the Hyades cluster
GHRS -  Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph, a spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope
also HRS
GIA -  Gruppo Italiano Astrometristi
GIMI -  Global Imaging Monitor of the Ionosphere, an ultraviolet imager on the Advanced Research and Global Observation Satellite
GJ -  Gliese & Jahreiß/Jahreiss catalog
GL -  Gliese catalog
GLAST -  Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
GMC -  Giant molecular Cloud
GMF -  Galactic Magnetic Field
GMRT -  Giant Meter Radio Telescope
GMT -  - Giant Magellan Telescope, a telescope being built by a US-Australian collaboration
GONG -  Global Oscillation Network Group, an organization that monitors oscillations in the Sun
GOODS - (survey) Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey a survey of various redshifts to study galactic formation and evolution
GP -  Giant Pulses, a description for a type of observed pulse emission from pulsars
GPS - (astrophysics teminology) GHz-Peaked Spectrum, a description for the radio or microwave spectra of some galaxies
GR -  General Relativity
GR -  Giclas Red dwarf, a catalog of red dwarfs
GRB -  Gamma Ray Burst
GRO -  Gamma Ray Observatory, another name for the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
GROSCE -  Gamma Ray Burst Optical Counterparts Search Experiment, an automated telescope used to detect the optical counterparts to gamma ray bursts
GRS -  Gamma Ray Spectrometer, an instrument on the Mars Observer
GRS -  Great Red Spot, a feature in the clouds of Jupiter
GSC -  Guide Star Catalog, a catalog of stars used for pointing the Hubble Space Telescope
GSC2 -  Guide Star Catalog version 2, a catalog of stars used for pointing the Hubble Space Telescope
also GSC II
GSFC -  Goddard Space Flight Center, a NASA institution
GSPC -  Guide Star Photometric Catalog, a catalog of stars with precisely-measured fluxes used to calibrate the Guide Star Catalog

 H
HAeBe -  Herbig AeBe star, a type of pre-main sequence star with strong spectral emission lines
HAe -  Herbig Ae star
HBe -  Herbig Be star
HALCA -  Highly Advanced Laboratory for Communications and Astronomy, a satellite that is part of the VLBI Space Observatory Program, a Japanese radio astronomy project
HAO -  High Altitude Observatory
HASI -  Huygens Atmosphere Structure Instrument, an instrument on the Huygens probe
HB -  Horizontal Branch, a description for a type of evolved red giant star in which helium is burned in the core and hydrogen is burned in a shell around the core
HBRP -  High-magnetic field Radio Pulsar
HBV -  Hamburg-Bergedorf Variables, a catalog of variable stars
HBMM -  Hydrogen Burning Minimum Mass
HCO -  Harvard College Observatory
HCS -  Heliospheric Current Sheet, the boundary where the polarity of the Sun’s magnetic field changes direction
HD -  Henry Draper, a catalog of stars
HDE -  Henry Draper Extension, a catalog of stars
HDF - (data/celestial object) Hubble Deep Field, an area of the sky with little foreground obscuration that was observed deeply with the Hubble Space Telescope; also the name for the data product itself
HDM -  Hot Dark Matter, a description for cosmological models treating neutrinos as dark matter
HDS -  High Dispersion Spectrograph, a spectrograph on the Subaru Telescope
HE -  Hamburg/ESO Survey
HEAO -  High Energy Astronomical Observatory, a series of X-ray and gamma ray space telescopes
HEASARC -  High Energy Astrophysics Science Archival Research Center, a NASA organization that deals with X-ray and gamma ray telescope data
HESS -  High Energy Stereoscopic System, a telescope for detecting cosmic rays
HETE -  High Energy Transient Explorer, a space telescope that performs multi-wavelength observations of gamma ray bursts
HF -  High Frequency
HGA -  High Gain Antenna
HH -  Herbig-Haro object, objects formed when the ejecta from new stars collides with the interstellar medium
also HHO
HIC -  HIPPARCOS Input Catalog, a catalog of data for the first target stars selected for observation by the Hipparcos
HICAT -  HIPASS catalog, a catalog of HI sources, see also NHICAT
HID -  - Hardness-Intensity Diagram, a type of color magnitude diagram used in X-ray and gamma ray astronomy
HIP -  HIPPARCOS, the catalog of data produced by Hipparcos
HIPASS -  HI Parkes All-Sky Survey, survey of HI sources
HIPPARCOS -  HIgh Precision PARallax COllecting Satellite, a space telescope specifically designed to measure distances to stars using parallax
HISA - (astrophysical terminology) HI Self-Absorption region
HK -  Survey for metal-poor stars based on the strength of CaII H and K absorption lines
HLIRG -  HyperLuminous Infrared Galaxy, a galaxy that is brighter than 1013 solar luminosities in the infrared
HMC -  Halley Multicolor Camera, an instrument on the Giotto spacecraft
HMPO -  High-Mass Proto-stellar Object
HMXB -  High-Mass X-Ray Binary, an X-ray-luminous binary system consisting of a compact star and a massive star
HPMS -  High Proper Motion Star, a star with high proper motion
HR -  Hoffleit Bright Star
HR -  Hertzsprung-Russell, a description for a diagram that compares stars’ colors to their luminosities
HRC-I -  High Resolution Camera, an instrument on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory
HRD -  High Rate Detector, an instrument on the Cassini spacecraft
HRMS -  High Resolution Microwave Survey, a survey for microwave signals from extraterrestrial intelligence
HRI -  High Resolution Imager, an instrument on the ROSAT telescope
HSP -  High Speed Photometer, an instrument formerly on the Hubble Space Telescope
HST -  Hubble Space Telescope
HTRA -  High Time Resolution Astrophysics, a term used to describe the observations of phenomena that vary on timescales of one second or less
HUT -  Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope, an ultraviolet telescope that operated from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle
HVC -  High Velocity Cloud, an interstellar cloud with a velocity that is too high to be explained by galactic rotation
HXD -  Hard X-ray Detector, an instrument on the on the Suzaku space telescope
HVS -  Hypervelocity Star or High Velocity Star

 I
IAC -  Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias
IAPPP -  International Amateur/Professional Photoelectric Photometry
IAS -  Istituto di Astrofisica Spaziale
IASY -  International Active Sun Year, the name given to a series of coordinated Sun-related observational programs performed in 1969 and 1971
IAU -  International Astronomical Union
IAUC -  IAU Circular
IAYC -  International Astronomical Youth Camp
IBAS -  - INTEGRAL Burst Alert System, an instrument on the INTEGRAL satellite
IBIS -  - Imager on Board the INTEGRAL Satellite, an instrument on the INTEGRAL satellite
IBVS -  Information Bulletin on Variable Stars
IC -  Index Catalog
IC -  Intracluster, a general term to describe either the regions between stars in star clusters or the region between galaxies in galaxy clusters
ICE -  International Comet Explorer
ICM -  Intracluster Medium, is the superheated gas present at the center of a galaxy cluster
ICQ -  International Comet Quarterly
ICRF -  International Celestial Reference Frame, a coordinate system based on radio sources used to define the locations of objects in the sky
ICRS -  International Celestial Reference System, a coordinate system based on Hipparcos observations used to define the locations of objects in the sky
IDA -  International Dark-Sky Association, an organization that seeks to control light pollution
IDP -  Interplanetary Dust Particle, dust particles around planets or planetary bodies
IDS -  Index catalog of Double Stars
IEO -  Inner-Earth Object, used to describe the orbits of asteroids
IERS -  International Earth Rotation geophysical Service or International Earth rotation and Reference systems Service, an organization that monitors the Earth’s orientation with respect to the radio sources used to define the ICRF
IfA -  Institute for Astronomy, the astronomy research division of the University of Hawaii
IGM -  InterGalactic Medium
IGR -  Integral Gamma-Ray source, a catalog based on observations by the INTEGRAL telescope
IGY -  International Geophysical Year, the name given to a series of coordinated geophysical and astronomical observation programs performed in 1957 and 1958
IHW -  International Halley Watch, an organization created to coordinate observations of Halley’s Comet in 1986
ILOM -  In-situ Lunar Orientation Measurement, a mission to measure variations in the orientation of the Moon from the Moon’s surface
IMBH -  Intermediate Mass Black Hole
IMF -  Initial Mass Function, used to describe the relative numbers of stars of different masses that form during star formation
IMO -  International Meteor Organization
IMPACT -  International Monitoring Programs for Asteroid and Comet Threat
IMPS -  IRAS Minor Planet Survey
INAG -  Institut National d’Astronomie et de Geophysique
ING -  Isaac Newton Group of Telescopes
INS -  Isolated Neutron Star
INT -  Isaac Newton Telescope
INTEGRAL -  INTErnational Gamma-Ray Astrophysics Laboratory, a gamma-ray space telescope
IoA -  Institute of Astronomy, an astronomy research department at Cambridge University
IOTA -  Infrared-Optical Telescope Array
IOTA -  International Occultation Timing Association, an organization for monitoring occultations
IPAC -  Infrared Processing & Analysis Center
IPMO -  Isolated Planetary Mass Objects, another name for isolated planemos or sub-brown dwarfs
IQSY -  International Quiet Sun Year, the name given to a series of coordinated Sun-related observational programs performed in 1964 and 1965
IR -  InfraRed
IRAC -  Infrared Array Camera, a mid-infrared imager on the Spitzer Space Telescope
IRAF -  Image Reduction and Analisys Facility, a general-purpose professional data-processing package
IRAIT -  - International Robotic Antarctic Infrared Telescope
IRAM -  Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique
IRAS - (telecope/catalog) InfraRed Astronomical Satellite, an infrared space telescope; also used to describe the catalog produced using the telescope’s data
IRCS -  InfraRed Camera and Spectrograph, an instrument on the Subaru Telescope
IRDC -  Infrared Dark Cloud
IRTF -  InfraRed Telescope Facility
IRSA -  Infrared Science Archive
ISAS -  Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
ISEE -  International Sun Earth Explorer, a series of spacecraft designed to study the effects of the Sun on the Earth’s space environment and magnetosphere
ISGRI -  - INTEGRAL Soft Gamma-Ray Imager, an instrument on the INTEGRAL satellite
ISM -  InterStellar Medium
ISN -  International Supernovae Network
ISO -  Infrared Space Observatory
ISPM -  International Solar Polar Mission, another name for the Ulysses spacecraft
ISSA -  Infrared Sky Survey Atlas, an atlas compiled from Infrared Astronomical Satellite data
ISTeC -  International Small Telescope Cooperative
ISY - (observing program/meeting) International Space Year, the name given to a celebration of space exploration as well as a series of coordinated astronomical observations and a series of meetings to plan future astronomy research efforts
ITA -  Institute of Theoretical Astronomy, one of three organizations that was combined to form the Institute of Astronomy
IUE -  International Ultraviolet Explorer, an ultraviolet space telescope
IUEDAC -  IUE satellite Data Analysis Center
IWCA -  International Workshop on Cometary Astronomy

 J
JAC -  Japan Astronomical Circular
JAC -  Joint Astronomy Centre, the organization that operates the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JAPOA -  Japan Amateur Photoelectric Observers Association
JAXA -  Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency
JCMT -  James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JD -  Julian Date, an alternative time commonly used in astronomy
JET-X -  Joint European Telescope for X-ray astronomy
JGR -  Journal of Geophysical Research
JILA -  formerly Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
JKT -  Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
JPL -  Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a research center associated with NASA
JSGA - (telescope/organization) Japan SpaceGuard Association, a Japanese telescope used to track near-Earth asteroids and space junk
JWST -  James Webb Space Telescope, a planned space telescope that will supersede the Hubble Space Telescope

 K
KAIT -  Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope
KAO -  Kuiper Airborne Observatory
KBO -  Kuiper Belt Object
KCAO -  Kumamoto Civil Astronomical Observatory
KIC -  Kepler Input Catalog, a catalog of stars with potential extrasolar planets to be observed by the Kepler Mission
KPNO -  Kitt Peak National Observatory

 L
L -  Lagrange, used to describe Lagrange points
L -  Luyten, a catalog of proper motion measurements of stars
LAD-C -  Large Area Debris Collector, a canceled program that was to collect and catalog low orbital dust on the International Space Station
LAEFF -  Laboratorio de Astrofisica Espacial y Fisica Fundamental, a Spanish astronomy research organization
LAL -  LALande, a historical catalog of stars
LANL -  Los Alamos National Laboratory
LASCO -  Large Angle and Spectrometric COronagraph, an instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
LASER -  Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
LBN -  Lynds Bright Nebula, a catalog of bright nebulae
LBNL -  Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
LBT -  Large Binocular Telescope
LBV -  Luminous Blue Variable, a type of very bright variable star
LCDM -  Lambda Cold Dark Matter, used to describe models for structure formation in the universe that include dark energy
also ΛCDM
LCROSS -  Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite
LCRS -  Las Campanas Redshift Survey
LDN -  Lynds Dark Nebula, a catalog of dark nebulae
LDS -  Luyten Double Star
LEO -  Low Earth Orbit
LEST -  Large Earth-based Solar Telescope
LETGS -  Low Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer, an instrument on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory
also LETG
LF -  Luminosity Function, used to describe the spatial density of objects such as star clusters and galaxies as a function of their luminosity
LFT -  Luyten Five-Tenths, a catalog of stars with proper motions exceeding 0.5″
LGA -  Low Gain Antenna
LGM -  Little Green Men, a humorous name applied to pulsars soon after their discovery
LHEA -  Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
LHS -  Luyten Half-Second, a catalog of stars with proper motions exceeding 0.5″
LIC -  Local Interstellar Cloud, the cloud in the interstellar medium through which the solar system is currently moving
LIGO -  Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory, an instrument for detecting gravitational waves
LINEAR -  Lincoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research
LINER -  Low Ionization Nuclear Emission Region, a galactic nucleus that is characterized by spectral line emission from weakly-ionized gas
LIRG -  Luminous Infrared Galaxy, a galaxy that is between 1011 and 1012 solar luminosities in the infrared
LISA -  Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, a series of spacecraft that can be used to detect gravitational waves
LLAGN -  Low Luminosity Active Galactic Nucleus, an active galactic nucleus with a low luminosity
LLNL -  Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory
LMC -  Large Magellanic Cloud, an irregular galaxy near the Milky Way
LMS -  Lower Main Sequence star, used to describe the less massive hydrogen-burning main sequence stars
LMXB -  Low-Mass X-Ray Binary, an X-ray-luminous binary star system in which one of the stars is a neutron star or black hole that is stripping material away from the other star in the system
LN2 -  Liquid Nitrogen
LONEOS -  Lowell Observatory Near-Earth Object Search
LOSS -  Lick Observatory Supernova Search
LOTIS -  Livermore Optical Transient Imaging System, a telescope designed to find the optical counterparts of gamma ray bursts
LOTOSS -  Lick Observatory and Tenagra Observatory Supernova Searches
LP -  Luyten Palomar, a catalog of proper motion measurements of stars
LPL -  Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, the planetary science department of the University of Arizona
LPO -  La Palma Observatory
LPV -  Long Period Variable, a type of variable star that changes in brightness slowly over time
LRG -  Luminous Red Galaxy, generally refers to a dataset of galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey that were selected on the basis of their red colors
LRO -  Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter
LSR -  Local Standard of Rest, used to describe the frame of reference with a velocity equal to the average velocity of all the stars in the solar neighborhood, including the Sun
LST -  Local Sidereal Time, the right ascension that is currently at the zenith
LTE -  Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium, refers to a state where variations in temperature, pressure, etc. do not vary on small scales
LTP -  Lunar Transient Phenomenon, used to describe an observed event (such as a flash of light) on the surface of the Moon
LTT -  Luyten Two-Tenths, a catalog of proper motion measurements for stars

 M
M -  Messier
M -  Mira, a class of long period pulsating variable stars named after Mira, the archetype for the class
MAC -  Multi instrument Aircraft Campaign, a program to study the cometary dust from the Leonids meteor showers
MACHO - (celestial object/observing program/catalog) MAssive Compact Halo Object, an object in the Milky Way’s halo thought to comprise part of the galaxy’s dark matter; also used to refer to a survey to detect these sources through gravitational lensing and the catalog of sources detected by the survey
MAP -  Microwave-background Anisotropy Probe, an older name for the Wilkinson Microwave-background Anisotropy Probe
MASER -  Microwave Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation, microwave emission that is similar to the optical emission from a laser
MBA -  Main Belt Asteroid
MBH -  Massive Black Hole
MCG -  Morphological Catalog of Galaxies
MCO -  Mars Climate Orbiter
MDS -  Medium Deep Survey, a survey of high-redshift galaxies with the Hubble Space Telescope
MECO -  Magnetospheric Eternally Collapsing Object, a type of object proposed as an alternative to supermassive black holes as the central compact source within active galactic nuclei
MEPAG -  Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group
MEPCO -  Meeting of European Planetary and Cometary Observers
MER -  Mars Exploration Rover
MGS -  Mars Global Surveyor
MHD -  MagnetoHydroDynamic
MICO -  Multi-year Interactive Computer Almanac, astronomy almanac software created by the United States Naval Observatory
MIPS -  Multi-band Imaging Photometer, an instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope
MJD -  Modified Julian Date, the Julian date minus 2400000.5
MLO - 
MMO -  Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter, JAXA space probe to Mercury
MMR -  Mean-Motion Resonance
MMT -  Multiple Mirror Telescope
MNRAS -  Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
MO -  Mars Observer
MOA -  Microlensing Observations in Astrophysics, a survey searching for gravitational lenses
MOC -  Mars Observer Camera, an instrument on the Mars Observer
MOID -  Minimum Orbit Intersection Distance, the minimum distance between two objects’ orbital paths
MOLA -  Mars Observer Laser Altimeter, an instrument on the Mars Observer used to study Mars’s topology
MOND -  Modified Newtonian Dynamics
MONS -  Measuring Oscillations in Nearby Stars, a Danish space telescope that was proposed and designed but not built [1]
MOST -  Microvariability and Oscillations of STars, a space telescope designed to detect oscillations in the atmospheres of stars and extrasolar planetss in orbit around other stars
MOST -  Molonglo Observatory Synthesis Telescope, an Australian radio telescope
MOTIF -  Maui Optical Tracking and Identification Facility
MOXE -  Monitoring X-ray Experiment, an X-ray all-sky monitor designed for the Spectrum-X-Gamma satellite
MPC -  Minor Planet Circulars (also called Minor Planets and Comets)
MPEC -  Minor Planet Electronic Circulars
MPF -  Mars PathFinder
MPL -  Mars Polar Lander
MPO - (space craft) Mercury Planetary Orbiter, ESA space craft to Mercury
MPP -  Multi-Pinned-Phase, CCD technology that reduces dark current noise
MPCS -  Minor Planet circulars Supplement
MPS - (observing project) Microlensing Planet Search, a program designed that detect extrasolar planets using a gravitational lensing technique
MRO -  Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
MSP -  MilliSecond Pulsar
MSSS -  Maui Space Surveillance Site
MSX -  Midcourse Space EXperiment, an infrared space telescope
MSSSO -  Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories
MUSES -  MU Space Engineering Spacecraft, used to describe a Japanese science-related spacecraft launched in a Mu rocket
MW -  Milky Way
MWD -  Magnetic White Dwarf
MXRB -  Massive X-Ray Binary, an X-ray-luminous binary system consisting of a compact star and a very massive star
MYSO -  Massive Young Stellar Object

 N
N -  Nova
NACA -  National Advisory Committee on Aeronautics, the older name for NASA
NAMN -  North American Meteor Network
NAOJ -  National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
NAS -  Norsk Astronomisk Selskap, the Norwegian name for the Norwegian Astronomical Society
NASA -  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASDA -  NAtional Space Development Agency
NBS -  National Bureau of Standards, an older name for the National Institute of Standards and Technology
NEAP -  Near Earth Asteroid Prospector, a space probe used to study a near-Earth asteroid
NEAR -  Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous, a space probe used to study a near-Earth asteroid
NEAT -  Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking
NED -  NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
NEO -  Near-Earth Object
also NEA -  Near-Earth Asteroid
NEMP -  Nitrogen-Enhanced Metal-Poor star, a type of Carbon star with high amounts of nitrogen
NEODyS -  Near Earth Objects Dynamic Site, an Italian web-based service that provides information on near-Earth asteroids
NEOIC -  Near Earth Object Information Center, a United Kingdom organization that provides information on near-Earth asteroids
NESS -  Near Earth Space Surveillance, a telescope for observing near-Earth asteroids
NESSI -  Near Earth Space Surveillance Initiative, a collaboration planning to use a ground-based telescope to observe near-Earth asteroids
NGC -  New General Catalog
NGST -  Next Generation Space Telescope, an older name for the James Webb Space Telescope
NHICAT -  Northern HIPASS CATalog, the northern extension of the HIPASS catalogue
NICMOS -  Near Infrared Camera / Multi Object Spectrometer, an infrared instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope
NIMS -  Near-Infrared Mapping Spectrometer, an instrument on the Galileo spacecraft
NIR -  Near-InfraRed
NIST -  National Institute of Standards and Technology
NLTE -  Non-Local Thermodynamic Equilibrium, used to describe situations where the temperature, pressure, etc of a system are not in equilibrium
NLTT -  New Luyten Two-Tenths, a catalog of stars with high proper motions
NOAA -  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
NOAO -  National Optical Astronomy Observatories
NODO -  NASA Orbital Debris Observatory, a now-defunct telescope used to observe space junk and other objects
NOT -  NOrdic Telescope
NPS -  North Polar Sequence, a series of stars near the North Celestial Pole once used as standards for measuring magnitudes
NRAO -  National Radio Astronomy Observatory
NRL -  Naval Research Laboratory
NS -  Neutron Star
NSF -  National Science Foundation
NSO -  National Solar Observatory
NSSDC -  National Space Science Data Center
NSV -  New Suspected Variable, a catalog of variable stars
NT -  Non-Thermal, used to describe radiation that is not related to the emission source’s temperature (such as synchrotron radiation)
NTT -  New Technology Telescope, a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory

 O
OAO -  Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, in Japan
OAO -  Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, a series of satellites with astronomical instruments that operated in the 1970’s
OC -  Open Cluster, a cluster of stars
OCA -  Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur
OCO -  Oort Cloud Object, an object (usually a comet) in the Oort cloud
OGLE -  Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, an observing program to survey the sky for microlensing events; also refers to the catalog of sources produced by the project
BLG -  BuLGe, used to desginate a source detected in the direction of the bulge of the Milky Way
TR -  TRansit, used to designate a potential observation of a microlensing event casued by a transiting star
OPAG -  Outer Planets Assessment Group, a group established by NASA that provides advice on solar system exploration
ORFEUS -  Orbiting and Retrievable Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Spectrometer, an ultraviolet space telescope that could be released and later retrieved by the Space Shuttle
OSSE -  Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment, an instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
OTA -  Optical Telescope Assembly, used to describe the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope
OWL -  Orbiting Wide-angle Light-collectors, two satellites that will work together to observe cosmic rays hitting the Earth’s atmosphere
OWL -  OverWhelmingly Large Telescope, a proposed telescope with a primary mirror with a width of 100 m

 P
P60 -  Palomar 60-inch telescope
PA -  Position Angle
PAMELA -  Payload for Antimatter Matter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics, a space telescope used to study cosmic rays
Pan-STARRS -  Panoramic Survey Telescope And Rapid Response System
PASJ -  Publications of the Astronomical Society of Japan
PASP -  Publications of the Astronomical Society of Pacific
PCA -  Proportional Counter Array, an X-ray detector on the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
PCAS -  Planet-Crossing Asteroid Survey
PDBI -  Plateau de Bure Interferometer, a radio telescope
PEP -  PhotoElectric Photometry, used to describe an observing technique using photometers
PEPE -  Plasma Experiment for Planetary Exploration, an instrument on Deep Space 1
PHA -  Potentially Hazardous Asteroid
PI - (person) Principal Investigator, the person who leads a scientific project
PK -  Perek-Kohoutek, a catalog of planetary nebulae
Planemo -  Planetary Mass Object
PLANET -  Probing Lensing Anomalies NETwork, a program to search for microlensing events
PLS -  Palomar-Leiden Survey, a program to search for asteroids
PMPS -  Parkes Multibeam Pulsar Survey
PMS -  Pre-Main Sequence, used to describe young stars that are still in the process of formation
also pre-MS
PMT -  PhotoMultiplier Tube
PN -  Planetary Nebula
also PNe (plural form of Planetary Nebula)
PNG -  Galactic Planetary Nebula
PNLF -  Planetary Nebula Luminosity Function, used to describe the density of planetary nebulae as a function of their luminosity
PNN -  Planetary Nebula Nucleus, the central star in a planetary nebula
PNNV -  Planetary Nebula Nucleus Variable, a variable star in the center of a planetary nebula
POSS -  Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
PPARC -  Particle Physics and Astronomy Research Council, a major government-sponsored science agency in the United Kingdom
PPM -  Positions and Proper Motions, a catalog of the positions and proper motions of stars
PPN -  Proto-Planetary Nebula, an object that has partially evolved from a red giant to a planetary nebula
PRE -  Photospheric Radius Expansion
Proplyd -  Protoplanetary Disk
PSC -  Point Source Catalog, a catalog of point-like infrared sources detected with the Infrared Astronomy Satellite
PSF -  Point Spread Function, a function that describes the blurring of a point source that is caused by the optics of the telescope and instrument (as well as other effects)
PSI -  Planetary Science Institute
PSR -  Pulsar
PVTEL -  PV TELescopii, a class of pulsating variable stars named after PV Telescopii, the archetype for the class
PVO -  Pioneer Venus Orbiter
PWD -  Pre-White Dwarf, a star that no longer creates energy through fusion that will eventually evolve into a white dwarf
PZT -  Photographic Zenith Tube, a general name for any telescope designed to observe objects passing at the zenith
PWN -  Pulsar Wind Nebula

 Q
QBO -  Quasi-Biennial Oscillation, a type of season variation in the Earth’s atmosphere
QE -  Quantum Efficiency, used to describe the sensitivity of CCDs
QPO -  Quasi-Periodic Oscillation
QSO -  Quasi-Stellar Object
Quasar -  QUASi-stellAR radio source

 R
RA -  Right Ascension
RAFGL - See AFGL.
RAS -  Royal Astronomical Society
RASC -  Royal Astronomical Society of Canada
RASS -  ROSAT All-Sky Survey, used as both a name for a survey with ROSAT and the catalogs produced from the survey
RC -  Red Clump, used to describe a type of metal-rich red giant star
also RCG - Red Clump Giant
RC -  Reference Catalogue, a catalog of nearby galaxies
RC2 - Reference Catalogue, 2nd edition
RC3 - Reference Catalogue, 3rd edition
RC - (organization/telescope) Ritchey Chretien, a manufacturer of amateur and professional telescope equipment; also refers to the telescopes themselves
RCB -  R Coronae Borealis, a class of eruptive variable stars named after R Coronae Borealis, the archetype for the class
RDI -  Radiation Driven Implosion
RECONS -  Research Consortium on Nearby Stars, a survey of nearby stars
RGB -  Red-Giant Branch, used to describe a star that is evolving from a main sequence star into a red giant
RGO -  Royal Greenwich Observatory
RLOF -  Roche Lobe Overflow, used to describe the result of when an object in a binary system is larger than its roche lobe (i.e. when an object in a binary system expands to a radius where tidal forces become stronger than gravitational forces)
RLQ -  Radio Loud Quasar, a quasar that produces strong radio emission
RNGC -  Revised New General Catalog
RORF -  Radio/Optical Reference Frame, an inertial reference frame based on extragalactic radio sources
ROSAT -  ROentgen SATellite, an X-ray space telescope
ROTSE - (observing program/telescope) Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment, an observing program for detecting the optical counterparts of gamma ray bursts; also used to describe the telescopes used in this program
RQQ -  Radio Quiet Quasar a quasar that produces weak radio emission
RRAT -  Rotating Radio Transient, a population of rotating neutron stars that produce periodic bursts of emission that are separated by intervals of minutes or hours
RRL -  RR Lyrae, a class of pulsating variable stars named after RR Lyrae, the archetype of the class
also RR
RSA -  Revised Shapley Ames, a catalog of nearby galaxies
RSA -  Russian Space Agency
RSG -  Red Super Giant
RSN -  Radio SuperNova
RTG -  Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, a type of power generator used in spacecraft that travel far from the Sun
RV -  Radial Velocity, the velocity along the line of sight
RX -  ROSAT X-ray, a catalog of sources detected by ROSAT
RXTE -  Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, a space telescope designed to observe variability in X-ray emission

 S
S&T -  Sky & Telescope
SAAO -  South African Astronomical Observatory
SALT -  Southern African Large Telescope
SAO - (organization/catalog) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the name of astrophysics research organization associated with Harvard University; also refers to a catalog of stars
SARA -  Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
SAS -  Science Analysis Software, a software package used for processing data from the XMM-Newton Observatory
SAT -  Synthetic Aperture Telescope
SB -  Spectroscopic Binary
SB1 - Spectroscopic Binary, single lined spectra
SB2 - Spectroscopic Binary, double lined spectra
SB -  Surface Brightness
SBIG - (organization/instrumentation) Santa Barbara Instrument Group, the name of both a company that manufactures telescope equipment and the company’s products
SBNC -  Small Bodies Names Committee, an older name for the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature
SCP -  Supernova Cosmology Project, a project to measure the expansion of the universe using supernovae at high redshifts
SCR -  SuperCOSMOS-RECONS, a survey that measured the proper motions of stars
SCT -  Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, a general name for a type of compact telescope that uses both lenses and mirrors
SCUBA -  Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array, a submillimeter imager formerly at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
SCUBA-2 -  Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array 2, a submillimeter imager that will replace SCUBA
sd -  subdwarf, used to describe stars fainter than main sequence stars with the same colors; often used as a prefix to a star’s spectral type
SDO -  Scattered Disk Object, Kuiper Belt objects with highly eccentric, highly inclined orbits
also SKBO - Scattered Kuiper Belt Object
SDOR -  S DORadus, a class of eruptive variable stars named after S Doradus, the archetype for the class
SDSS -  Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a large imaging and spectroscopic survey; also used to describe the catalog of sources from the survey
SDSSp -  Sloan Digital Sky Survey provisory
SED - (astrophyics terminology) Spectral Energy Distribution
SEDS -  Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
SERC -  Science and Engineering Research Council
SEST -  Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope
SETI -  Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
SF -  Star Formation
SFR - (astrophyics terminology) Star Formation Rate
SGF -  SpaceGuard Foundation, an organization that tracks near-Earth asteroids
SGR -  Soft Gamma Repeater, a type of neutron star with strong magnetic fields that produces very large bursts of energy
SID -  Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance, a disturbance in the Earth’s ionosphere caused by the Sun
SIDC -  Sunspot Index Data Center
SIM -  Space Interferometry Mission, a planned optical space telescope that will be used to measure distances to stars
SIMBAD -  Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data, a website that provides catalog data on astronomical objects
SINGS -  Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey
SIPS -  Southern Infrared Proper Motion Survey, a program to identify stars with high proper motions at infrared wavelengths
SIRTF -  Space InfraRed Telescope Facility or Shuttle InfraRed Telescope Facility, older names for the Spitzer Space Telescope
SIS -  Superconductor-Isolator-Superconductor
SL -  Shoemaker-Levy, used to refer to the comets discovered by Shoemaker and Levy, particularly Shoemaker-Levy 9
SL -  SpaceLab
SMA -  Submillimeter Array
SMART -  Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology
SMBH -  Super Massive Black Hole
SMC -  Small Magellanic Cloud
SME -  Solar Mesosphere Explorer, a spacecraft used to study the Earth’s ozone layer
SMEX -  SMall EXplorers, the name of a series of small astronomical spacecraft; also used to describe the program to develop the spacecraft
SMM -  Solar Maximum Mission, a solar space telescope
SN -  Signal-to-Noise, used to describe the ratio between the signal from an object and the noise from the detector that measured the signal
also SNR - Signal-to-Nosie Ratio
SN -  SuperNova
also SNe (plural form of SN)
SNR -  SuperNova Remnant
SNU -  Solar Neutrino Units
SOARD -  Steward Observatory Asteroid Relational Database
SOFIA -  Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, an infrared telescope currently under construction that will fly inside a modified Boeing 747 aircraft
SOHO -  SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory, a solar space telescope
SPARTAN -  Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy, an ultraviolet space telescope that can be released and retrieved by the Space Shuttle
SPIRIT -  SPace InfraRed Imaging Telescope, an infrared instrument on the Midcourse Space Experiment spacecraft
SPS -  Solar Power Satellite, a general name for proposed satellites that would convert solar power into energy and then beam the energy to the surface of a planet (such as Earth in the form of microwaves
SPT -  South Pole Telescope
SQIID -  Simultaneous Quad Infrared Imaging Device
SQM -  Strange Quark Matter
SR -  Special Relativity
SRON -  Space Research Organization of the Netherlands
SS -  Symbiotic Star, a type of binary star system containing a red giant and a hot dwarf star that generate a cone-shaped nebula
SSI -  Solid-State Imager, an instrument on the Galileo spacecraft
SSI -  Space Studies Institute
SSP -  - Surface-Science Package, on board the Huygens probe
SSS -  SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys
SSSPM -  SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey Proper Motion
SST -  Spectroscopic Survey Telescope
SST -  Spitzer Space Telescope, a space telescope
STEPS -  STEllar Planet Survey
STIS -  Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, an instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope
STS -  Shuttle Transport System or Space Transportation System
STScI -  Space Telescope Science Institute
STSDAS -  Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System
SUGRA -  SUperGRAvity
SUPRIME -  SUbaru PRIME focus CAMera, an instrument on the Subaru Telescope
SUSI -  Sydney University Stellar Interferometer, an optical interferometer
SWAN -  Solar Wind ANisotropy, an instrument on SOHO
SWAS -  Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite, a submillimeter space telescope
SWEEPS -  - Sagittarius Window Eclipsing Extrasolar Planet Search, a survey of a subsection of the plane of the Milky Way performed with the Hubble Space Telescope
SwRI -  Southwest Research Institute
SXARI -  SX ARIetis, a class of rotating variable stars named after SX Arietis, the archetype for the class
SXPHE -  SX PhoEnicis, a class of pulsating variable stars named after SX Phoenicis, the archetype for the class

 T
TAC -  Time Allocation Committee or Telescope Allocation Committee, a general name for a committee that awards telescope observing time
TAC -  Twin Astrograph Catalog
TAI -  International Atomic Time
TAMS -  Terminal-Age Main Sequence, used to describe stars at the point in their lifetimes where they have finished burning hydrogen in their cores
TAROT -  Télescope à Action Rapide pour les Objets Transitoires
TASS -  The Amateur Sky Survey
TAU -  Thousand Astronomical Unit, a spacecraft mission proposed in the 1980’s that would reach 1000 AU in 50 years
TCB -  Barycentric Coordinate Time
TCG -  Geocentric Coordinate Time
TDB -  Barycentric Dynamical Time
TDRSS -  Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System, an array of satellites used by NASA to communicate with many spacecraft in low Earth orbit
TES -  Thermal Emission Spectrometer, a spectrometer on the Mars Observer
TEP -  Transits of Extrasolar Planets
TGF -  - Terrestrial gamma-ray flash, gamma rays emitted from Earth’s lightning stroms
THEMIS -  Thermal Emission Imaging System, a camera on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft
TIC -  Tycho Input Catalog, a predecessor of the Hipparcos Input Catalog
TIMED -  Thermosphere Ionosphere Mesosphere Energetics and Dynamics
TIE -  Telescopes In Education
TLP -  Transient Lunar Phenomenon, an unexplained flash of light observed from the Moon
TMC -  Taurus Molecular Cloud
TMT -  - Thirty Meter Telescope, formerly known as California Extremely Large Telescope
TNO -  Trans-Neptunian Object, any object that orbits the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune
TO - (person) Telescope Operator, the technician who assists in operating a telescope during astronomical observations
TOPS -  Toward Other Planetary Systems, a series of educational astronomy workshops
TPF -  Terrestrial Planet Finder, a planned space telescope that will be used to find extrasolar Earth-like planets
TRACE - Transition Region And Coronal Explorer, a solar space telescope
TrES -  Transatlantic Exoplanet Survey
TT -  Terrestrial Time
also TDT - Terrestrial Dynamical Time
TTS -  T-Tauri Star
TWA -  TW Hydrae Association
TYC -  Tycho, a catalog that was the predecessor of the Hipparcos (HIP) Catalogue
TZO -  Thorne-Żytkow Object, the object that forms when a neutron star merges with a red giant

 U
UARS -  Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, a satellite used to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere
UCAC -  USNO CCD Astrometric Catalog
UESAC -  Uppsala-ESO Survey of Asteroids and Comets
UFO -  Unidentified Flying Object
UG -  U Geminorum, a class of cataclysmic variable stars (also known as dwarf novae) that are named after U Geminorum, the archetype for the class
UGSS -  UG SS Cygni, a subclass of UG-type stars named after SS Cygni, the archetype for the subclass
UGSU -  UG SU Ursae Majoris, a subclass of UG-type stars named after SU Ursae Majoris, the archetype for the subclass
UGWZ -  UG WZ Sagittae, a subclass of UG-type stars named after WZ Sagittae, the archetype for the subclass
UGZ -  UG Z Camelopardalis, a subclass of UG-type stars named after Z Camelopardalis, the archetype for the subclass
UGC -  Uppsala General Catalog, a catalog of galaxies
UIT -  Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope, an ultraviolet telescope that was operated from the cargo bay of the Space Shuttle
UKIDSS -  UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey
UKIRT -  United Kingdom Infrared Telescope
UKST -  United Kingdom Schmidt Telescope
ULIRG -  UltraLuminous InfraRed Galaxy, a galaxy that is brighter than 1012 solar luminosities in the infrared
ULX -  UltraLuminous X-ray source
UMS -  Upper Main Sequence, used to describe the more massive hydrogen-burning main sequence stars
USAF -  United States Air Force
USGS -  United States Geological Survey
USNO -  United States Naval Observatory
UT -  Universal Time
UTC -  Coordinated Universal Time
UV -  UltraViolet
UVS -  UltraViolet Spectrometer, the name of instruments on the Voyager and Galileo spacecraft
UXOR -  UX ORionis objects, a class of variable pre-main sequence stars named after UX Orionis, the archetype for the class

 V
VBO -  Vainu Bappu Observatory, located in India
VBT -  Vainu Bappu Telescope, located at Vainu Bappu Observatory
VCC -  Virgo Cluster Catalog, a catalog of galaxies in the Virgo Cluster
VdS -  Vereinigung der Sternfreunde, the German amateur astronomers society
VEEGA -  Venus-Earth-Earth Gravity Assist, used to describe the path taken by the Galileo spacecraft to reach Jupiter
VERA -  VLBI Exploration of Radio Astrometry, a Japanese radio telescope designed for studying objects in the Milky Way
VHE -  Very High Energy, used to describe gamma rays with high energies
VLA -  Very Large Array, a radio telescope in New Mexico operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
VLBA -  Very Long Baseline Array, a radio telescope operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory with antennae spread across the United States
VLBI -  Very Long Baseline Interferometry, used to describe combining signals from multiple telescopes/radio antennae that are separated by large distances
VLM -  Very Low Mass, a description for objects (usually stars) that have relatively low masses
VLT -  Very Large Telescope, four 8.2 meter telescopes in Chile that operate either independently as individual telescopes or together as an interferometer
VOIR -  Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar, a spacecraft for mapping Venus that was canceled and then superseded by the Magellan spacecraft
VRM -  Venus Radar Mapper, an older name for the Magellan spacecraft
VSOLJ -  Variable Star Observers League in Japan
VSOP -  VLBI Space Observatory Program, a project to use both satellites and ground-based radio telescopes as an interferometer
VST -  VLT Survey Telescope

 W
WD -  White Dwarf
WDM -  Warm Dark Matter, used to describe models for structure formation in the universe that use “hot” particles such as neutrinos as dark matter
WDS -  Washington Double Star, a catalog of double stars
WEBT -  Whole Earth Blazar Telescope, a network of observers across the Earth who work together to perform continuous observations of blazars
WET -  Whole Earth Telescope, a network of astronomers spread across the Earth who work together to perform continuous observations of variable stars
WFPC -  Wide Field and Planetary Camera, a camera formerly on the Hubble Space Telescope that was replaced with WFPC2
WFPC2 -  Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, a camera on the Hubble Space Telescope
WFC -  Wide-Field Channel, one of the detectors in the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope
WGPSN -  Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature
WHT -  William Herschel Telescope
WIMP -  Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, a hypothetical subatomic particle that may comprise most of the dark matter in the universe
WISARD -  Web Interface for Searching Archival Research Data
WIYN - (teelscope) Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO, the name of a telescope at Kitt Peak operated by the University of Wisconsin, Indiana University, Yale University, and the National Optical Astronomy Observatory
WLM -  Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte, a nearby dwarf galaxy in the constellation Cetus
WMAP -  Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe, a space telescope used to study the cosmic microwave background radiation
WR -  Wolf-Rayet, a type of hot, luminous star with strong stellar winds
WC -  Carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet, a Wolf-Rayet star with strong carbon spectral line emission
WN -  Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a Wolf-Rayet star with strong nitrogen spectral line emission
WNE -  Early-type Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a WN star without hydrogen spectral line emission
WNL -  Late-type Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a WN star with hydrogen spectral line emission
WO -  Oxygen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a Wolf-Rayet star with strong oxygen spectral line emission
WSRT -  an aperture synthesis interferometer that consists of a linear array of 14 antennas
WTTS -  Weak-Line T-Tauri Star, a type of young star with weak spectral line emission

 X
XIS -  X-ray imaging spectrometer, an instrument on the on the Suzaku space telescope
XMM -  X-ray Multi Mirror, part of the name of the XMM-Newton X-ray space telescope
XN -  X-ray Nova
XRF -  X-Ray Flash

 Y
YSO -  Young Stellar Object

 Z
ZAHB -  “Zero-Age” Horizontal Branch, a description for horizontal branch stars that have just begun burning helium in their cores and hydrogen in a shell around the cores
ZAMS -  Zero Age Main Sequence, a description for a star that has just become a main sequence star (i.e. a star that has begun burning hydrogen in its core)
ZAND -  Z ANDromedae, a class of eruptive variable stars named after the binary star system Z Andromedae, the archetype for the class
ZANDE -  Z ANDromedae with Eclipses, a subclass of ZAND stars where the stars eclipse each other
ZEPLIN -  ZonEd Proportional scintillation in LIquid Noble gases, a dark matter detector
ZHR -  Zenith Hourly Rate, the maximum number of meteors per hour that may be observed during a meteor shower

 See also
List of common astronomy symbols
Modern Constellations
List of astronomical catalogues

 References
AAVSO Type List. Information retrieved on 2006-09-10 - 2006-09-11

Abbreviations and acronyms frequently used in astronomy. Information retrieved on 2006-08-28 - 2006-09-12

The Encyclopedia of Astrobiology, Astronomy, and Spaceflight. Information retrieved on 2006-08-27 - 2006-09-12

Frequently Seen Space/Astronomy Acronyms. Information retrieved on 2006-08-27 - 2006-09-12

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