astronomy
951 abbreviations
Abbreviation | Meaning | |
---|---|---|
VLM | (astrophysics terminology) Very Low Mass, objects (usually stars) that have relatively low masses | |
VLT | (telescope) Very Large Telescope, four 8.2 meter telescopes in Chile that operate either independently as individual telescopes or together as an interferometer | |
VMO | (software) The Virtual Meteor Observatory is an activity of the International Meteor Organisation together with the Research and Scientific Support Department of the European Space Agency to store meteor data from observers all over the world. | |
VO | (software) Virtual Observatory | |
VOIR | (spacecraft) Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar, a spacecraft for mapping Venus that was canceled and then superseded by the Magellan spacecraft | |
VRM | (spacecraft) Venus Radar Mapper, an older name for the Magellan spacecraft | |
VSOLJ | (organization) Variable Star Observers League in Japan | |
VSOP | (organization) VLBI Space Observatory Program, a project to use both satellites and ground-based radio telescopes as an interferometer | |
VST | (telescope) VLT Survey Telescope | |
VVDS | (observing program) VIMOS-VLT Deep Survey | |
WC | (celestial object) Carbon-rich Wolf-Rayet, a Wolf-Rayet star with strong carbon spectral line emission | |
WD | (celestial object) White Dwarf | |
WDM | (astrophysics terminology) Warm Dark Matter, any model for structure formation in the universe that characterizes "hot" particles such as neutrinos as dark matter | |
WDS | (catalog) Washington Double Star, a catalog of double stars | |
WEBT | (organization) Whole Earth Blazar Telescope, a network of observers across the Earth who work together to perform continuous observations of blazars | |
WET | (organization) Whole Earth Telescope, a network of astronomers spread across the Earth who work together to perform continuous observations of variable stars | |
WFC | (instrumentation) Wide-Field Channel, one of the detectors in the Advanced Camera for Surveys on the Hubble Space Telescope | |
WFCAM | (instrumentation) Wide Field Camera, a camera on the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope | |
WFMOS | (instrumentation) Wide-Field Multi-Object Spectrograph, proposed instrument for the Gemini telescopes | |
WFPC | (instrumentation) Wide Field and Planetary Camera, a camera formerly on the Hubble Space Telescope that was replaced with WFPC2 | |
WFPC2 | (instrumentation) Wide Field and Planetary Camera 2, a camera on the Hubble Space Telescope | |
WGPSN | (organization) Working Group for Planetary System Nomenclature | |
WHT | (telescope) William Herschel Telescope | |
WIMP | (celestial object) Weakly Interacting Massive Particle, a hypothetical subatomic particle that may comprise most of the dark matter in the universe | |
WIRCam | (instrumentation) Wide-field InfraRed Camera, instrument on the Canada-France-Hawaii Telescope | |
WISARD | (software) Web Interface for Searching Archival Research Data | |
WISE | (observing program) Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer | |
WIYN | (telescope) 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 | (celestial object) Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte, a nearby dwarf galaxy in the constellation Cetus | |
WMAP | (telescope) Wilkinson Microwave Anisotrophy Probe, a space telescope used to study the cosmic microwave background radiation | |
WN | (celestial object) Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a Wolf-Rayet star with strong nitrogen spectral line emission | |
WNE | (celestial object) Early-type Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a WN star without hydrogen spectral line emission | |
WNL | (celestial object) Late-type Nitrogen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a WN star with hydrogen spectral line emission | |
WO | (celestial object) Oxygen-rich Wolf-Rayet, a Wolf-Rayet star with strong oxygen spectral line emission | |
WR | (celestial object) Wolf-Rayet, a type of hot, luminous star with strong stellar winds | |
WSRT | (telescope) an aperture synthesis interferometer that consists of a linear array of 14 antennas | |
WTTS | (celestial object) Weak-Line T-Tauri Star, a type of young star with weak spectral line emission | |
XCS | (observing program) XMM Cluster Survey | |
XIS | (instrumentation) X-ray imaging spectrometer, an instrument on the Suzaku space telescope | |
XMM | (telescope) X-ray Multi-Mirror, the XMM-Newton earth-orbiting X-ray-sensitive telescope | |
XN | (celestial object) X-ray Nova | |
XRF | (celestial object) X-Ray Flash | |
Ys | (celestial object) Yellow Straggler | |
YSG | (celestial object) Yellow Super Giant star | |
YSO | (celestial object) Young Stellar Object | |
ZAHB | (celestial object) "Zero-Age" Horizontal Branch, horizontal branch stars that have just begun burning helium in their cores and hydrogen in a shell around the cores | |
ZAMS | (celestial object) Zero Age Main Sequence, a star that has just become a main-sequence star (i.e. a star that has begun burning hydrogen in its core) | |
ZAND | (celestial object) Z ANDromedae, a class of eruptive variable stars named after the binary star system Z Andromedae, the archetype for the class | |
ZANDE | (celestial object) Z ANDromedae with Eclipses, a subclass of ZAND stars where the stars eclipse each other | |
ZEPLIN | (instrumentation) ZonEd Proportional scintillation in LIquid Noble gases, a dark matter detector |