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Revision as of 21:34, 16 March 2013

Motivation

At the 2012 General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (the international peak body for professional astronomy), the organising committee of IAU Commission 5 (Data and Information) requested the creation of the following list of Astronomical Acronyms on Misplaced Pages. This list of acronyms and initials is not definitive but reflects current usage amongst professional astronomers.

List of Acronyms

• A
• B
• C
• D
• E
• F
• G
• H
• I
• J
• L
• M
• N
• P
• Q
• S
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y

A

• AAS American Astronomical Society – the primary association of professional astronomers in the United States
• ADS The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/NASA astrophysics data system, an on-line database of almost all astronomical publications
• AGN – active galactic nucleus – the nucleus of a galaxy that contains an active massive black hole
• AIPS Astronomical Image Processing System – a widely used software package used for processing radio astronomy data
• AMANDA Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array – a neutrino telescope located at a depth of 1.5 – 1.9 km below the ice in Antarctica.
• ARCADE Absolute Radiometer for Cosmology, Astrophysics, and Diffuse Emission – a balloon satellite experiment to measure the heating of the Universe by the first stars and galaxies after the big bang.
• ASKAP Australian Square Kilometre Array Pathfinder – a next-generation radio telescope under construction in Western Australia. It differs from previous radio-telescopes in having many pixels at the focus of each antenna.
• ATCA Australia Telescope Compact Array, a radio telescope in Australia operated by CSIRO.
• ATLAS Australia Telescope Large Area Survey – a deep radio astronomical sky survey of two SWIRE fields covering a total of about 7 square degrees of sky.

B

• BLAST Balloon­-borne Large ­Aperture Sub­millimeter Telescope – a submillimeter telescope that hangs from a high-altitude balloon, operated by a multi-university consortium headed by the University of Pennsylvania
• BOOMERanG Balloon Observations Of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics

C

• CANGAROO Collaboration between Australian and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory in the Outback - a very high energy cosmic gamma ray observatory, located on the Woomera Prohibited Area in South Australia.
• CARA Centre for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica - an organisation that operates an observatory at the South Pole, including several different telescopes from different research groups.
• CARMA Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy - an array of millimetre-wave telescopes located near Owens Valley, California
• CDFS Chandra Deep Field South - a deep field surveyed by many telescopes at different wavelengths, first selected for deep field observations by the Chandra X-ray Observatory
• CDM Cold dark matter is a hypothetical form of dark matter thought to account for 80% of matter in the Universe.
• CDS Centre de données astronomiques de Strasbourg – a major astronomical data centre
• CMB Cosmic microwave background radiation thermal radiation filling the observable universe almost uniformly
• CME – coronal mass ejection
• COSMOS The Cosmic Evolution Survey a deep field surveyed by many telescopes at different wavelengths, first selected as a Hubble Space Telescope Treasury Project to survey a two square degree equatorial field with the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS).
• CV – cataclysmic variable, a type of active star

D

• DM dark matter – the unidentified non-baryonic matter responsible for 80% of matter in the Universe.

E

• EGS Extended Groth Strip – a deep field surveyed by many telescopes at different wavelengths
• EGRET Energetic Gamma Ray Experiment Telescope - a Gamma-ray telescope mounted on board NASA's Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
• ELAIS ESO Large-area infrared survey – a survey which named three deep fields (ELAIS-North, ELAIS-South1, ELAIS-South2) which are used for deep sky surveys
• ELF Extremely Luminous Far-infrared Galaxy, a synonym for Ultra-Luminous infrared galaxy - a galaxy which emits more than 10 solar luminosities in the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• EMU Evolutionary Map of the Universe – a planned radio survey of the sky which will use the new ASKAP radio telescope to make a radio survey of the sky, producing a catalogue of 70 million galaxies.
• ESA European Space Agency
• ESO European Southern Observatory
• EVN European VLBI Network – a collaboration of the major radio astronomical institutes in Europe, Asia and South Africa to perform high angular resolution observations of cosmic radio sources.

F

• FITS Flexible Image Transport System

G

• GBT Green Bank Telescope – the world's largest fully steerable radio telescope operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory at Green Bank, West Virginia, US.
• GMRT Giant Metrewave Radio Telescope
• GOODS Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey

H

• HDF Hubble Deep Field - a deep field surveyed by many telescopes at different wavelengths, first selected for deep field observations by the Hubble Space Telescope
• HDFS Hubble Deep Field South - a deep field surveyed by many telescopes at different wavelengths, first selected for deep field observations by the Hubble Space Telescope
• HLIRG Hyper-Luminous infrared galaxy - a galaxy which emits more than 10 solar luminosities in the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• HOPS The H2O southern Galactic Plane Survey
• HST Hubble Space Telescope

I

• IAU International Astronomical Union
• IRAM Institut de radioastronomie millimétrique

J

• JBO Jodrell Bank Observatory A radio observatory in England. Part of The University of Manchester.
• JIVE Joint Institute for VLBI in Europe

L

• LCDM or ΛCDM Lambda – cold dark matter – a cosmological model in which the universe contains a cosmological constant, denoted by Lambda, and cold dark matter. It is frequently referred to as the standard model of Big Bang cosmology.
• LIRG Luminous infrared galaxy - a galaxy which emits more than 10 solar luminosities in the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.
• LOFAR The LOFAR low-frequency synthesis array, based in the Netherlands
• LSST Large Synoptic Survey Telescope

M

• MACHO Massive Compact Halo Objects – a class of objects once hypothesised to be the cause of Dark Matter
• MALT Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team – including MALT90 and MALT45
• MERLIN Multi Element Radio Linked Interferometer. A seven-telescope radio interferometer – maximum baseline ~200km – operated from Jodrell Bank Observatory
• MBH – massive black hole
• MUSYC Multi-wavelength survey by Yale-Chile

N

• NASA National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• NED NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
• NOAO National Optical Astronomy Observatory – one of the major optical observatory organisations in the USA
• NRAO National Radio Astronomy Observatory – the premier radio observatory in the US
• NRAL Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratory – the former name for Jodrell Bank Observatory
• NVSS NRAO VLA Sky Survey A major survey of the sky produced in 1998 using the VLA radio telescope

P

• POSSUM Polarisation Sky Survey of the Universe's Magnetism – a polarisation survey to be conducted with the new ASKAP radio telescope
• PRIMUS The Prism Multi-Object Survey – a large of several deep fields

S

• SAO Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory
• SKA Square Kilometre Array – a next-generation radio telescope to be built in Australia and South Africa
• SMBH – super-massive black hole
• SWIRE Spitzer Widefield Infrared Extragalactic Survey – a large deep survey carried out with the Spitzer space telescope

T

• TABLEAUX – International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods
• TCC – Theory of Cryptography Conference
• TPHOLs – Theorem Proving in Higher-Order Logics
• TSD – Text, speech and dialogue

U

• UAI Union Astronomique Internationale – the French name for the International Astronomical Union, and one of its two official names
• ULIRG Ultra-Luminous infrared galaxy - a galaxy which emits more than 10 solar luminosities in the far-infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum.

V

• VISTA Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy a 4-m diameter telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory, and located in Chile.
• VLA Very Large Array – a large radio telescope located in Socorro, New Mexico, operated by the National Radio Astronomy Observatory
• VLBI very long baseline interferometry – a technique used in Radio astronomy involving the use of radio telescopes separated by hundreds or thousands of km.
• VLT Very Large Telescope – one of the world's largest telescopes, operated by the European Southern Observatory

W

• WALLABY WALLABY is a survey of neutral hydrogen in galaxies to be conducted with the new ASKAP radio telescope
• WIMP Weakly interacting massive particle – a class of objects hypothesised to be the cause of Dark Matter
• WSRT Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope

External links

• Acronym Finder
• Astroacro

References

1. "The CANGAROO Project" The University of Adelaide. Retrieved 17 September 2011.

• Use dmy dates from September 2012
• Lists of abbreviations
• Astronomical nomenclature