List of astronomy acronyms


This is a compilation of initialisms and acronyms commonly used in astronomy. Most are drawn from professional astronomy, and are used quite frequently in scientific publications. A few are frequently used by the general public or by amateur astronomers.
The acronyms listed below were placed into one or more of these categories:
  • Astrophysics terminology – physics-related acronyms
  • Catalog – collections of tabulated scientific data
  • Communications network – any network that functions primarily to communicate with spacecraft rather than performing astronomy
  • Data – astrophysical data not associated with any single catalog or observing program
  • Celestial object – acronyms for natural objects in space and for adjectives applied to objects in space
  • Instrumentation – telescope and other spacecraft equipment, particularly detectors such as imagers and spectrometers
  • Meeting – meetings that are not named after organizations
  • Observing program – astronomical programs, often surveys, performed by one or more individuals; may include the groups that perform surveys
  • Organization – any large private organization, government organization, or company
  • Person – individual people
  • Publication – magazines, scientific journals, and similar astronomy-related publications
  • Software – software excluding catalogued data and scientific images
  • Spacecraft – any spacecraft except space telescopes
  • Telescope – ''ground-based and space telescopes; organizations that operate telescopes are listed under "organization"''

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
  • 2dF – Two-degree field, spectrograph on the Anglo-Australian Telescope
  • 2dFGRS – Two-degree-Field Galaxy Redshift Survey
  • 2D-FRUTTI – Two dimensional photon counting system
  • 2SLAQ – 2dF-SDSS LRG and QSO 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, 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
  • 6dF – six-degree field, ''spectrograph on the UKST''

A

  • A&A – Astronomy & Astrophysics, a European scientific journal
  • A4E – Astronomers for Planet Earth
  • AAA – Amateur Astronomers Association of New York
  • AAO – Australian Astronomical Observatory
  • AAS – American Astronomical Society
  • AAT – Anglo-Australian Telescope
  • AAVSO – American Association of Variable Star Observers
  • ABBA – ADC Backend For Bolometer Array
  • 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
  • ACT - Atacama Cosmology Telescope, a cosmological millimeter-wave telescope located on Cerro Toco in the Atacama Desert in the north of Chile.
  • 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
  • ADS – The Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory/NASA, an on-line database of almost all astronomical publications
  • ADIS – Astrophysics Data and Information Services
  • ADS – Astrophysics Data Service, an organization that maintains an online database of scientific articles
  • AdS — Anti-deSitter
  • AEGIS – the All-wavelength Extended Groth strip International Survey
  • AFGL – Air Force Geophysics Laboratory, a research laboratory now part of the United States Air Force Research Laboratory
  • AFOEV – Association française des observateurs d'étoiles 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 type of red giant star
  • AGC – Arecibo general catalog
  • 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
  • ALMA – Atacama Large Millimeter/Sub-millimeter Array
  • ALPO – Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers
  • AMANDA – Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array, a neutrino telescope in Antarctica
  • AMASE – Astrophysics Multi-spectral Archive Search Engine
  • AMBER – a near-infrared interferometric instrument at VLTI
  • 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, a machine for making measurements from photographic plates; also, a catalog based on measurements by the machine
  • APO – Apache Point Observatory
  • APOD – Astronomy Picture of the Day
  • APT – Automated Patrol Telescope
  • ARC – Ames Research Center
  • ARC – Astrophysical Research Consortium
  • ARCADE – a balloon satellite experiment to measure the heating of the Universe by the first stars and galaxies after the Big Bang
  • ASA – Astronomical Society of the Atlantic
  • ASAS – All Sky Automated Survey
  • ASCL – Astrophysics Source Code Library, a citable online registry of research source codes
  • ASE – Astronomical Society of Edinburgh
  • ASI – Agenzia Spaziale Italiana
  • [Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy, Cambridge|Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics|ASIAA] – Academia Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • 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.
  • ASP – Astronomical Society of the Pacific
  • ASTRO – Autonomous Space Transport Robotic Operations
  • ATA – Allen Telescope Array, a radio interferometer array developed by the SETI Institute to search for possible signals from extraterrestrial life
  • ATCA – Australia Telescope Compact Array
  • – Australia Telescope Large Area Survey, a deep radio astronomical sky survey of two fields covering a total of about 7 square degrees of sky.
  • ATM – hobbyist engaged in Amateur telescope making
  • AU – 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 – baryon acoustic oscillations
  • BAO – Beijing Astronomical Observatory
  • BASIS – Burst and All Sky Imaging Survey
  • BAT – Burst Alert Telescope, an instrument on [Swift Gamma-ray burst|Gamma-Ray Burst Mission|SWIFT]
  • BATC – Beijing-Arizona-Taiwan-Connecticut, the name of a multi-wavelength sky survey
  • BATSE – Burst and Transient Source Experiment, an instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory
  • BATTeRS – Bisei Asteroid Tracking Telescope 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, also bright central galaxy
  • BCG – Brightest Cluster Galaxy, the brightest galaxy in a cluster of galaxies
  • 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
  • BEL – broad emission line clouds in Active galactic nucleus
  • BF – Broadening function
  • BH – Black hole
  • BHB – Blue horizontal branch, a type of luminous star
  • BHC – Black hole candidate
  • BHXRT – Black hole x-ray transient
  • * also BHXT
  • BICEP2 – Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization 2
  • BIMA – Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association, and also B-M-I Array, microwave telescope it operated
  • BIS – British Interplanetary Society
  • BITP – – Bogolyubov Institute for Theoretical Physics, a Ukrainian research institute
  • BKL - Belinski–Khalatnikov–Lifshitz, a model of chaotic oscillations of spacetime near a singularity
  • BLAGN – Broad-Line AGN, based on classification of spectral line widths
  • 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
  • BLR – the broad line region of the AGN
  • BNSC – British National Space Centre, the older name for UKSA
  • BOAO – Bohyunsan Optical Astronomy Observatory, in Korea
  • BOOMERanG – Balloon Observations of Millimetric Extragalactic Radiation and Geophysics
  • 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

  • C – First Cambridge Catalogue of Radio Sources, 2C, 3C...
  • CADC – Canadian Astronomy Data Centre
  • CAHA – Centro Astronómico Hispano Alemán, a German-Spanish Astronomical Centre
  • CANDELS – Cosmic Assembly Near-Infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey or Cosmic Assembly and Dark Energy Legacy Survey
  • CANTAR - Colombian Antarctic Telescope for 21-cm Absorption during Reionization
  • CAPS – Cassini Plasma Spectrometer, an instrument on the Cassini spacecraft
  • CARA – California Association for Research in Astronomy
  • CANGAROO – Collaboration between Australian and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory
  • CARA – Center for Astrophysical Research in Antarctica
  • CASCA – Canadian Astronomical Society / Société canadienne d'astronomie
  • CARMA – an array
  • CASS – Center for Advanced Space Studies
  • CASS – Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences, an interdisciplinary research unit at UC San Diego
  • CBAT – Central Bureau for Astronomical Telegrams
  • CBE – Collisionless Boltzmann Equation
  • 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 nebula
  • CCS – cool carbon star
  • CCSNe - core collapse supernovae
  • CCSFS – Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, a United States Space Force launch base
  • CD – Cordoba Durchmusterung
  • CDFS – Chandra Deep Field South
  • CDIMP – Catalogue of Discoveries and Identifications of Minor Planets
  • CDM – Cold Dark Matter, any model for structure formation in the universe that characterize "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
  • CGM - Circumgalactic Medium
  • CGCS – Cool galactic carbon star
  • CGRO – Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
  • CGSS – Catalogue of Galactic S Stars
  • CH — Cauchy horizon, an inner horizon in a spinning and/or charged black hole
  • CHARA – Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy
  • CHeB – Core Helium Burning
  • CHIPSat – Cosmic Hot Interstellar Plasma Spectrometer satellite
  • CHIRON -
  • 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
  • CINDI – Coupled Ion-Neutral Dynamics Investigation
  • 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
  • CMB – cosmic microwave background radiation
  • * also CMBR, CBR, MBR
  • CMC – Carlsberg Meridian Catalogue
  • CMD – color–magnitude diagram, the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram or similar diagrams
  • * also CM
  • CME – coronal mass ejection
  • 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 catalog
  • 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
  • COSMOS – Cosmic Evolution Survey
  • COSPAR – COmmittee on SPAce Research
  • COSTAR – Corrective Optics Space Telescope Axial Replacement, corrective optics for the Hubble Space Telescope
  • CP – Chemically peculiar, stars with peculiar chemical compositions
  • CPD – Cape Photographic Durchmusterung
  • CRAF – Comet Rendezvous Asteroid Flyby
  • CRL – Cambridge Research Laboratories
  • CRRES – Combined Release and Radiation Effects Satellite
  • CSA – Canadian Space Agency
  • CSBN – Committee for Small-Body Nomenclature
  • CSE – circumstellar envelope, a roughly spherical planetary nebula formed from dense stellar wind if not present before the formation of a star.
  • CSI – Catalog of Stellar Identification, a compilation of the catalogs, BD, CD, and CPD
  • CSO – Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
  • CSP – composite stellar population
  • CSPN – central star of planetary nebula
  • * also CSPNe
  • CSS – Catalina Sky Survey
  • CST – ConStanT, non-variable stars
  • CSV – Catalog of Suspected Variables
  • CTIO – 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 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 – double-lined eclipsing binary
  • DENIS – DEep Near Infrared Survey
  • DENIS-P – DEep Near Infrared Survey, Provisory designation .
  • DES – Dark Energy Survey
  • DESI - Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
  • DEC – Declination
  • DES – Deep Ecliptic Survey
  • DIB – diffuse interstellar band, an absorption feature in stellar spectra with an interstellar origin
  • DIRBE – Diffuse InfraRed Background Experiment, a multiwavelength infrared detector used to map dust emission
  • DISR – – Descent Imager/Spectral Radiometer, an instrument on the Huygens probe
  • DMR – Differential Microwave Radiometer, a microwave instrument that would map variations in the CMB
  • DM – dark matter, the unidentified non-baryonic matter
  • DN – Dwarf nova
  • DNS – double neutron star, another name for a binary neutron star system. .
  • DOG – dust-obscured galaxy, a galaxy with an unusually high ratio of infrared-to-optical emission, implying strong dust absorption and re-emission.
  • DOM - Digital optical module, an instrument in the IceCube Neutrino Observatory and Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array
  • DPOSS – Digitized Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
  • DRAGN Double Radio Source Associated with a Galactic Nucleus
  • 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 antennas used for communicating to spacecraft
  • DSS – Digitized Sky Survey
  • DSFG - Dusty Star Forming Galaxy
  • DWE – – Doppler Wind Experiment, ''an instrument on the Huygens probe''

E

F

G

H

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, either the regions between stars in star clusters or the region between galaxies in galaxy clusters
  • IC - IceCube Neutrino Observatory a.k.a. IceCube, a neutrino observatory at the Amundsen–Scott South Pole Station in Antarctica
  • 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, 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: either Institute for Astronomy (Hawaii) or Institute for Astronomy, School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Edinburgh, Scotland
  • IFN – integrated flux nebulae, dust and gas outside the plane of the Milky Way, which are thus illuminated by the entire galaxy as opposed to a nearby star or stars
  • 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
  • IMAGE – Imager for Magnetopause-to-Aurora Global Exploration
  • IMBH – intermediate mass black hole
  • IMF – initial mass function, 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 Analysis Facility, a general-purpose professional data-processing package
  • IRAIT – – International Robotic Antarctic Infrared Telescope
  • IRAM – Institut de Radio Astronomie Millimetrique
  • IRAS – InfraRed Astronomical Satellite, an infrared space telescope; also the catalog produced using the telescope's data
  • IRCS – InfraRed Camera and Spectrograph, an instrument on the Subaru Telescope
  • IRDC – Infrared Dark Cloud
  • IRS – InfraRed Spectrograph, an infrared spectrometer on the Spitzer Space Telescope
  • IRSA – Infrared Science Archive
  • IRTF – InfraRed Telescope Facility
  • IRX – InfraRed Excess
  • ISAS – Institute of Space and Astronautical Science
  • ISAS – Institute of Space and Atmospheric Studies, a research unit at the University of Saskatchewan
  • ISCO – Innermost Stable Circular Orbit
  • 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
  • ISON – International Scientific Optical Network
  • ISPM – International Solar Polar Mission, another name for the Ulysses spacecraft
  • ISRO – Indian Space Research Organisation
  • ISS - International Space Station
  • ISSA – Infrared Sky Survey Atlas, an atlas compiled from Infrared Astronomical Satellite data
  • ISTeC – International Small Telescope Cooperative
  • ISY – 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
  • IUCAA – Inter-University Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics - Pune, India
  • IUE – International Ultraviolet Explorer, an ultraviolet space telescope
  • IUEDAC – IUE satellite Data Analysis Center
  • IWCA – International Workshop on Cometary Astronomy

J

K

L

M

  • MARVEL – Multi-object Apache Point Observatory Radial Velocity Exoplanet Large-area Survey, a NASA-funded project to search for exoplanets
  • 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 – MAssive Compact Halo Object, an object in the Milky Way's halo thought to comprise part of the galaxy's dark matter; also a survey to detect these sources through gravitational lensing and the catalog of sources detected by the survey
  • MACS – Magellanic Catalogue of Stars
  • MAGIC – Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Cherenkov telescope
  • MALT – Millimetre Astronomy Legacy Team – including and MALT45
  • MAP – Microwave-background Anisotropy Probe, an older name for the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
  • MASER – microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation, microwave emission that is similar to the optical emission from a laser
  • MAVEN – Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN
  • MBA – main belt asteroid
  • MBH – massive black hole
  • MCG – Morphological Catalog of Galaxies
  • MCMC - Markov chain Monte Carlo
  • 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
  • MeerKAT - originally the Karoo Array Telescope, a radio telescope consisting of 64 antennas in the Meerkat National Park, in the Northern Cape of South Africa
  • MEGARA – Multi-Espectrógrafo en GTC de Alta Resolución para Astronomía, an instrument on the Gran Telescopio Canarias
  • MEPAG – Mars Exploration Program Analysis Group
  • MEPCO – Meeting of European Planetary and Cometary Observers
  • MER – Mars Exploration Rover
  • MERLIN – Multi Element Radio Linked Interferometer. A seven-telescope radio interferometer
  • MESSENGER – MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry and Ranging
  • MGC – Millennium Galaxy Catalogue
  • MGS – Mars Global Surveyor
  • MHD – MagnetoHydroDynamic
  • MICO – Multi-year Interactive Computer Almanac, astronomy almanac software created by the United States Naval Observatory
  • MIDI – MID-Infrared instrument. A mid-infrared instrument of the VLTI
  • MIPS – Multi-band Imaging Photometer, an instrument on the Spitzer Space Telescope
  • MIRI – Mid-Infrared Instrument, an instrument on the James Webb 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
  • MMS – Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission
  • MMSN – Minimum Mass Solar Nebula
  • 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
  • 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
  • MPEC – Minor Planet Electronic Circular
  • MPF – Mars PathFinder
  • MPL – Mars Polar Lander
  • MPO – 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 – Microlensing Planet Search, a program designed that detect extrasolar planets using a gravitational lensing technique
  • MRI – magnetorotational instability, a local instability in the accretion disks which only requires weak magnetic field and dΩ2/dR<0
  • MRK – Markarian galaxies
  • MRO – Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
  • MSL – Mars Science Laboratory
  • MSP – millisecond pulsar
  • MSSS – Maui Space Surveillance Site
  • MSX – Midcourse Space EXperiment, an infrared space telescope
  • MSSSO – Mount Stromlo and Siding Spring Observatories
  • MUNICS – MUnich Near-Infrared Cluster Survey
  • MUSES – MU Space Engineering Spacecraft, a Japanese science-related spacecraft launched in a Mu rocket
  • MUSTANG – Multiplexed SQUID TES Array at Ninety GHz, A bolometer camera on the Green Bank Telescope.
  • MUSYC – Multi-wavelength Survey by Yale-Chile
  • 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
  • NCT – Nuclear Compton Telescope – a balloon-borne soft gamma-ray telescope.
  • 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
  • NEID - a nested acronym for NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler Spectroscopy, and it gets its name from the Tohono O'odham word meaning "to see"
  • 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
  • NEOWISE – Near-Earth Object WISE
  • 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
  • NGS-POSS – National Geographic Society – Palomar Observatory Sky Survey
  • NGST – Next Generation Space Telescope, an older name for the James Webb Space Telescope
  • ngVLA – Next-Generation Very Large Array
  • NHICAT – Northern HIPASS CATalog, the northern extension of the HIPASS catalogue
  • NICER - Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer, a NASA telescope on the International Space Station
  • 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
  • NIRCam –, Near-Infrared Camera, an instrument on James Webb Telescope
  • NIRSpec – Near-Infrared Spectrograph, an instrument on James Webb Telerscope
  • NIST – National Institute of Standards and Technology
  • NLAGN – Narrow-Line AGN, classified based on lack of broadened emission or absorption lines in spectra
  • NLR – the Narrow Line Region of the AGN
  • NLTE – non-local thermodynamic equilibrium, 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
  • NN-Explore - NASA-NSF Exoplanet Observational Research
  • NNVS – Nizhny Novgorod, Veränderliche Sterne; a variable star publication of the Nizhny Novgorod Society of Physics and Astronomy Amateurs
  • 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
  • NRAL – Nuffield Radio Astronomy Laboratory, the former name for Jodrell
  • 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, radiation that is not related to the emission source's temperature
  • NTT – New Technology Telescope, a telescope operated by the European Southern Observatory
  • NuSTAR – Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array
  • – NRAO VLA Sky Survey, a major survey

O

  • OAO – Okayama Astrophysical Observatory, in Japan
  • OAO – Orbiting Astronomical Observatory, a series of satellites with astronomical instruments that operated in the 1970s
  • OC – open cluster, a cluster of stars
  • OCA – Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur
  • OCO – Oort Cloud Object, an object in the Oort cloud
  • OGLE – Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment, an observing program to survey the sky for microlensing events; also the catalog of sources produced by the project
  • * BLG – BuLGe, used to designate 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 caused 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
  • OSIRIS-REx – Origins Spectral Interpretation Resource Identification Security Regolith Explorer
  • OSS – Ohio Sky Survey
  • OSSE – Oriented Scintillation Spectrometer Experiment, an instrument on the Compton Gamma Ray Observatory
  • OTA – Optical Telescope Assembly, the optics of the Hubble Space Telescope
  • OVV – an optically violent variable quasar.
  • 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

Q

  • QBO – quasi-biennial oscillation, a type of season variation in the Earth's atmosphere
  • QGP - Quark-Gluon Plasma
  • QE – quantum efficiency, the sensitivity of CCDs
  • QPO – quasi-periodic oscillation
  • QSO – quasi-stellar object
  • Quasar – quasi-stellar radio source

R

  • RAPTOR – Rapid Telescopes for Optical Response project
  • RA – Right ascension
  • RAFGL – See AFGL.
  • RAMBO – An association of brown dwarfs or white dwarfs form a dark cluster.
  • 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, 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 – Ritchey Chretien, a manufacturer of amateur and professional telescope equipment; also 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, a star that is evolving from a main-sequence star into a red giant
  • * Can also refer to the ROSAT-Green Bank Catalog
  • RGO – Royal Greenwich Observatory
  • RLOF – Roche Lobe Overflow, the result of when an object in a binary system is larger than its roche lobe
  • 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 – Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment, an observing program for detecting the optical counterparts of gamma ray bursts; also 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
  • RSAA – Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, part of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University
  • 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

  • S82 – Stripe 82
  • S&T – Sky & Telescope
  • SAAO – South African Astronomical Observatory
  • SALT – Southern African Large Telescope
  • SAF – Société astronomique de France
  • SAM – Semi-Analytic Modeling, models that draw on numerical and analytical methods to model dark matter evolution in galaxies
  • SAO – Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the name of astrophysics research organization associated with Harvard University; also 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
  • SAVAL – Sociedad Astronómica de Valparaíso y Viña del Mar, Chile. Amateur Astronomy. Founded in 1956.
  • SB – spectroscopic binary
  • * SB1 – spectroscopic binary, single-lined spectra
  • * SB2 – spectroscopic binary, double-lined spectra
  • SB – surface brightness
  • SBIG – 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, 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 the catalog of sources from the survey
  • SDSSp – Sloan Digital Sky Survey provisory / preliminary
  • SEAAN – Southeast Asia Astronomy Network, astronomy research and education among Southeast Asian countries
  • SED – 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
  • SFH – star formation history
  • SFR – 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
  • SGRB – – Short Gamma-Ray Burst.
  • SHOES-Supernovae, HO, for the Equation of State of Dark 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
  • SINGG – Survey of Ionization in Neutral Gas Galaxies, a survey of star formation in nearby galaxies selected by gas rich galaxies using H-alpha and ultraviolet observations
  • 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
  • SKA – Square Kilometre Array
  • SL – Shoemaker–Levy, the comets discovered by Shoemaker and Levy, particularly Shoemaker–Levy 9
  • SL – SpaceLab
  • SLED - Spectral Line Energy Distribution, a description of the relative strength of CO emission lines
  • SLS – American Space Shuttle-derived super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle.
  • SMA – Submillimeter Array
  • SMART – Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology
  • SMARTS – Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System at Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory
  • 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 the program to develop the spacecraft
  • SMG - submillimeter galaxy
  • SMM – Solar Maximum Mission, a solar space telescope
  • SN – signal-to-noise, the ratio of the signal from an object to the noise from the detector that measured the signal
  • * also SNR – Signal-to-nosie ratio
  • SN – supernova
  • * also SNe
  • SNAP – SuperNova Acceleration Probe, proposed space telescope
  • 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
  • SONEAR – Southern Observatory for Near Earth Asteroids Research
  • SOLO – Solar Orbiter
  • SPARTAN – Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy, an ultraviolet space telescope that can be released and retrieved by the Space Shuttle
  • SPHERE – Spectro-Polarimetric High-Contrast Exoplanet Research, VLT
  • SPIRE - Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver, a Herschel imaging camera and low-resolution spectrometer
  • 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 in the form of microwaves
  • SPS – stellar population synthesis
  • 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
  • sSFR – specific star formation rate
  • SSI – Solid-State Imager, an instrument on the Galileo spacecraft
  • SSI – Space Studies Institute
  • SSP – Surface Science Package, on board the Huygens probe
  • SSP – simple stellar population
  • SSRQ – Steep Spectrum Radio Quasars
  • SSS – SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys
  • SSSPM – SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey Proper Motion
  • SST – Spectroscopic Survey Telescope
  • SST – Spitzer Space Telescope, a space telescope
  • STARSMOG – STarlight Absorption Reduction through a Survey of Multiple Occulting Galaxies, a survey using Hubble Space Telescope imaging
  • STEPS – STEllar Planet Survey
  • STEREO – Solar TErrestrial RElations Observatory
  • 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
  • SWIRE – Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic survey
  • 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

  • T-1 – First Jupiter Trojan survey at Mount Palomar, part of the P–L survey
  • T-2 – Second Jupiter Trojan survey at Mount Palomar, part of the P–L survey
  • T-3 – Third Jupiter Trojan survey at Mount Palomar, part of the P–L survey
  • TABLEAUX – International Conference on Automated Reasoning with Analytic Tableaux and Related Methods
  • 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, 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
  • TARDIS – an open-source program used for numerical modelling and analysis of supernovae
  • TAU – Thousand Astronomical Unit, a spacecraft mission proposed in the 1980s that would reach 1000 AU in 50 years
  • TCB – Barycentric Coordinate Time
  • TCC – Theory of Cryptography Conference
  • 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
  • TESS - Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite, NASA: an all-sky survey mission that will discover thousands of exoplanets around nearby bright stars. TESS launched 18 April 2018 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket
  • TEP – Transits of Extrasolar Planets
  • TRGB - - Tip of the Red-Giant Branch stars, a primary distance indicator
  • TGF – – Terrestrial gamma-ray flash, gamma rays emitted from Earth's lightning storms
  • THEMIS – Thermal Emission Imaging System, a camera on the Mars Odyssey spacecraft
  • TIC – Tycho Input Catalog, a predecessor of the Hipparcos Input Catalog
  • TIFR – – Tata Institute of Fundamental Research - India
  • TIR – total infrared
  • 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
  • TN – telescope nut, nickname for an amateur telescope maker
  • TNO – trans-Neptunian object, any object that orbits the Sun at a distance greater than that of Neptune
  • TO – 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
  • TPHOLs – Theorem Proving in Higher-Order Logics
  • 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

V

W

  • – a survey of neutral hydrogen in galaxies
  • WD – white dwarf
  • WDM – warm dark matter, any model for structure formation in the universe that characterizes "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
  • WFCAM – Wide Field Camera, a camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope
  • WFIRST - Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope, former name of the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope scheduled for launch in 2025
  • WFMOS – Wide-Field Multi-Object Spectrograph, proposed instrument for the Gemini telescopes
  • 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
  • WIRCam – Wide-field InfraRed Camera, instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope
  • WIRE – Wide Field Infrared Explorer
  • WISARD – Web Interface for Searching Archival Research Data
  • WISE – Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
  • WIYN – Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO, the name of a telescope at Kitt Peak operated by the University of Wisconsin–Madison, 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

  • XCS – XMM Cluster Survey
  • XIS – X-ray imaging spectrometer, an instrument on the Suzaku space telescope
  • XMM – X-ray Multi-Mirror, the XMM-Newton earth-orbiting X-ray-sensitive telescope
  • XN – x-ray nova
  • XRF – x-ray flash
  • XRISM - X-Ray Imaging and Spectroscopy Mission, an X-ray space telescope.

Y

  • Ys – yellow straggler
  • YSG – yellow super giant star
  • YSO – young stellar object

Z