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At the 2012 General Assembly of the International Astronomical Union (IAU; the international body for professional astronomy), the organising committee of IAU Commission 5 (Data and Information) requested the creation of a 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
• T
• U
• V
• W
• X
• Y
• Z

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.
• AGC Arecibo general catalog

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.
• DSS Digitized Sky Survey

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
• GALEX GALaxy Evolution eXplorer

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
• LINEAR LIncoln Near-Earth Asteroid Research
• LMC Large Magellanic Cloud
• LONEOS Lowell Observatory Near-Earth-Object Search

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 ~200 km – operated from Jodrell Bank Observatory
• MBH – massive black hole
• MUSYC Multi-wavelength survey by Yale-Chile
• MPC Minor Planet Center

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
• NGC New General Catalogue
• NEAT Near-Earth Asteroid Tracking

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
• SOHO SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory
• SMM Solar Maximum Mission
• SDO Scattered disc object
• SDSS Sloan Digital Sky Survey
• SMC Small Magellanic Cloud

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
• TNO Trans-Neptunian object

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.
• UZC Updated Zwicky Catalogue
• UKIRT United Kingdom Infrared Telescope
• UKIDSS UKIRT Infrared Deep Sky Survey

V

• VISTA Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy a 4-m diameter telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory, and located in Chile.
• VIPERS VIMOS Public Extragalactic Redshift Survey an ESO Large Program to map galaxies over an unprecedented volume of the z~1 Universe
• 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

X

• XMM X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission

Z

• ZOA Zone of Avoidance

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