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VOIR (spacecraft) Venus Orbiting Imaging Radar, a spacecraft for mapping Venus that was canceled and then superseded by the Magellan spacecraft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