All Acronyms

2

2MASS
Two Micron All-Sky Survey

A

A&A
Astronomy & Astrophysics
AAS
American Astronomical Society
ACS
Advanced Camera for Surveys
ADS
Astrophysics Data System
AGB
Asymptotic giant branch
AGN
Active galactic nucleus
AGORA
Assembling Galaxies of Resolved Anatomy
ALMA
Atacama Large Millimeter Array
AO
Adaptive optics
APOD
Astronomy Picture of the Day
AU
Astronomical unit

B

BAO
Baryon acoustic oscillations
BBN
Big Bang nucleosynthesis
BCD
Blue compact dwarf
BCG
Brightest cluster galaxy
BD
Brown Dwarf
BH
Black Hole
BOSS
Baryon Oscillation Spectroscopic Survey
BSM
Physics beyond the Standard Model

C

CALIFA
Calar Alto Legacy Integral Field Area Survey
CCD
Charge-coupled device
CCM
Climate chemistry model
CDM
Cold dark matter
CFD
Computational fluid dynamics
CFL
Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy
CIB
Cosmic infrared background
CMB
Cosmic microwave background
CMBR
Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation
CMD
Color–magnitude diagram
CNB
Cosmic neutrino background
CNO
Carbon-Nitrogen-Oxygen
COM
Center of mass
CSP
Composite stellar population

D

DES
Dark Energy Survey
DESI
Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument
DM
Dark matter
DMDG
Dark Matter Deficient Galaxies
DMH
Dark matter halo
DOOFAAS
Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site
DPU
Data processing unit
DR2
Data Release 2

E

EAS
European Astronomical Society
EdS
Einstein–de Sitter
EoR
Epoch of Reonization
EOS
Equation of state
ESA
European Space Agency
ESO
European Southern Observatory
ETG
Early-type galaxy
EW
Equivalent width
EWPT
Electroweak Phase Transition

F

FDF
FORS Deep Field
FIR
Far Infrared
FITS
Flexible Image Transport System
FLI
Fraction of lunar illumination
FLI
Fast Lyapunov indicator
FLRW
Friedmann–Lemaître–Robertson–Walker
FWHM
Full width at half maximum

G

GC
Galaxy cluster
GMC
Giant molecular cloud
GR
General relativity
GRB
Gamma-ray burst
GTO
Guaranteed Time Observations
GUT
Grand Unified Theory
GW
Gravitational wave
GWB
Gravitational wave background

H

HARPS
High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher
HD
Henry Draper Catalogue
HDF
Hubble Deep Field
HDU
Header Data Unit
HMF
Halo mass function
HOD
Halo Occupation Distribution
HRD
Hertzsprung–Russell diagram
HST
Hubble Space Telescope
HUDF
Hubble Ultra-Deep Field
HZ
Habitable zone

I

IAU
International Astronomical Union
ICM
Intracluster medium
IDP
Interplanetary dust particles
IFU
Integral field units
IGM
Intergalactic Medium
IMF
Initial mass function
INDIGO
Indian Initiative in Gravitational-wave Observations
ISM
Interstellar medium
ISS
International Space Station

J

JCAP
Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics
JD
Julian day
JPL
Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JWST
James Webb Space Telescope

K

KAGRA
Kamioka Gravitational Wave Detector
KBO
Kuiper belt object
KDC
Kinematically Decoupled Components

L

Laser
Light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
LCC
Lower Centaurus-Crux
LEO
Low Earth orbit
LFI
Likelihood-free Inference
LHB
Late Heavy Bombardment
LIGO
Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory
LIRG
Luminous infrared galaxy
LISA
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
LMC
Large Magellanic Cloud
LOSVD
Line-of-sight velocity distribution
LPT
Lagrangian Perturbation Theory
LSBG
Low surface brightness galaxy
LSS
Large Scale Structure

M

MACHO
Massive astrophysical compact halo object
Maser
Microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation
MCMC
Markov chain Monte Carlo
MGE
Multi-Gaussian Expansion
MHD
Magnetohydrodynamics
MMR
Mean-motion resonance
MMSN
Minimum Mass Solar Nebula
MNRAS
Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society
MOND
Modified Newtonian dynamics
MOSFIRE
Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infra-Red Exploration
MPC
Minor Planet Center
MS
Main Sequence
MSSM
Minimal Supersymmetric Standard Model
MUSE
Multi-unit spectroscopic explorer
MUSIC
Multi-scale cosmological initial conditions

N

NANOGrav
North American Nanohertz Observatory for Gravitational Waves
NASA
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NED
NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database
NFW
Navarro–Frenk–White
NGC
New General Catalogue
NIR
Near Infrared
NLO
Next-to-leading order
NOAO
National Optical Astronomy Observatory

O

OC
Open cluster
ODE
Ordinary differential equation
OLBI
Optical Long Baseline Interferometry
OPC
Observing Programmes Committee
OSS
Outer Solar System

P

PBH
Primordial black hole
PDE
Partial differential equation
PMS
Post main sequence
PN
Planetary nebula
PPN
Protoplanetary nebula
PSF
Point spread function
PTA
Pulsar timing array
PWV
Precipitable water vapor

Q

QG
Quiescent galaxies
QSO
Quasi-stellar object

R

RC
Rotation curve
RGB
Red-giant branch
RHD
Radiation Hydrodynamics
RV
Radial velocity

S

SBI
Simulation-based Inference
Sco–Cen
Scorpius–Centaurus Association
SDSS
Sloan Digital Sky Survey
SED
Spectral energy distribution
SETI
Search for extraterrestrial intelligence
SFG
Star forming galaxies
SFR
Star formation rate
SFRD
Star formation rate density
SHAM
Subhalo Abundance Matching
SIDM
Self-interacting dark matter
SIMBAD
Set of Identifications, Measurements and Bibliography for Astronomical Data
SMBH
Supermassive black hole
SMC
Small Magellanic Cloud
SMG
Submillimeter Galaxy
SMHM
Stellar mass – Halo mass
SN
Supernova
SNR
Supernova remnant
SPH
Smoothed-particle hydrodynamics
SPT
Standard Perturbation Theory
SPW
Spectral Window
SR
Secular resonance

s

sSFR
Specific star formation rate

S

SSP
Single stellar population

T

TESS
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite
TFR
Tully–Fisher relation
TNO
Trans-Neptunian object
TOE
Theory of everything
TRGB
Tip of the red-giant branch

U

UCL
Upper Centaurus-Lupus
ULX
Ultraluminous X-ray source
URC
Universal Rotation Curve
USCO
Upper Scorpius
UV
Ultraviolet

V

VLT
Very Large Telescope

W

WFC3
Wide Field Camera 3
WFIRST
Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope
WFS
Wavefront sensor
WHDF
William Herschel Deep Field
WIMP
Weakly interacting massive particles
WMAP
Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe

Y

YSO
Young stellar object

Z

ZAMS
Zero Age Main Sequence

Λ

ΛCDM
Lambda cold dark matter