List of Astronomy Acronyms - S

S

  • S&T – (publication) Sky & Telescope
  • SAAO – (organization) South African Astronomical Observatory
  • SALT – (telescope) Southern African Large Telescope
  • SAO – (organization/catalog) Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory, the name of astrophysics research organization associated with Harvard University; also a catalog of stars
  • SARA – (organization) Society of Amateur Radio Astronomers
  • SAS – (software) Science Analysis Software, a software package used for processing data from the XMM-Newton Observatory
  • SAT – (telescope) Synthetic Aperture Telescope
  • SB – (celestial object) Spectroscopic Binary
    • SB1 – Spectroscopic Binary, single lined spectra
    • SB2 – Spectroscopic Binary, double lined spectra
  • SB – (astrophysics terminology) Surface Brightness
  • SBIG – (organization/instrumentation) Santa Barbara Instrument Group, the name of both a company that manufactures telescope equipment and the company's products
  • SBNC – (organization) Small Bodies Names Committee, an older name for the Committee for Small Body Nomenclature
  • SCP – (observing program) Supernova Cosmology Project, a project to measure the expansion of the universe using supernovae at high redshifts
  • SCR – (observing program) SuperCOSMOS-RECONS, a survey that measured the proper motions of stars
  • SCT – (telescope) Schmidt-Cassegrain Telescope, a general name for a type of compact telescope that uses both lenses and mirrors
  • SCUBA – (instrumentation) Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array, a submillimeter imager formerly at the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
  • SCUBA-2 – (instrumentation) Submillimetre Common User Bolometer Array 2, a submillimeter imager that will replace SCUBA
  • sd – (celestial object) subdwarf, stars fainter than main-sequence stars with the same colors; often used as a prefix to a star's spectral type
  • SDO – (celestial object) Scattered Disk Object, Kuiper Belt objects with highly eccentric, highly inclined orbits
    • also SKBO – Scattered Kuiper Belt Object
  • SDOR – (celestial object) S DORadus, a class of eruptive variable stars named after S Doradus, the archetype for the class
  • SDSS – (observing program/catalog) Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a large imaging and spectroscopic survey; also the catalog of sources from the survey
  • SDSSp – (catalog) Sloan Digital Sky Survey provisory
  • SED – (astrophyics terminology) Spectral Energy Distribution
  • SEDS – (organization) Students for the Exploration and Development of Space
  • SERC – (organization) Science and Engineering Research Council
  • SEST – (telescope) Swedish-ESO Submillimetre Telescope
  • SETI – (observing program) Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence
  • SF – (astrophysics terminology) Star Formation
  • SFR – (astrophyics terminology) Star Formation Rate
  • SGF – (organization) SpaceGuard Foundation, an organization that tracks near-Earth asteroids
  • SGR – (celestial object) Soft Gamma Repeater, a type of neutron star with strong magnetic fields that produces very large bursts of energy
  • SID – (astrophysics terminology) Sudden Ionospheric Disturbance, a disturbance in the Earth's ionosphere caused by the Sun
  • SIDC – (organization) Sunspot Index Data Center
  • SIM – (telescope) Space Interferometry Mission, a planned optical space telescope that will be used to measure distances to stars
  • SIMBAD – (software) Set of Identifications, Measurements, and Bibliography for Astronomical Data, a website that provides catalog data on astronomical objects
  • SINGG – (observing program) 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 – (observing program) Spitzer Infrared Nearby Galaxies Survey
  • SIPS – (observing program/catalog) Southern Infrared Proper Motion Survey, a program to identify stars with high proper motions at infrared wavelengths
  • SIRTF – (telescope) Space InfraRed Telescope Facility or Shuttle InfraRed Telescope Facility, older names for the Spitzer Space Telescope
  • SIS – (Instrumentation) Superconductor-Isolator-Superconductor
  • SKA – (telescope) Square Kilometre Array
  • SL – (catalog) Shoemaker-Levy, the comets discovered by Shoemaker and Levy, particularly Shoemaker-Levy 9
  • SL – (spacecraft) SpaceLab
  • SMA – (telescope) Submillimeter Array
  • SMART – (spacecraft) Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology
  • SMBH – (celestial object) Super Massive Black Hole
  • SMC – (celestial object) Small Magellanic Cloud
  • SME – (spacecraft) Solar Mesosphere Explorer, a spacecraft used to study the Earth's ozone layer
  • SMEX – (spacecraft) SMall EXplorers, the name of a series of small astronomical spacecraft; also the program to develop the spacecraft
  • SMM – (telescope) Solar Maximum Mission, a solar space telescope
  • SN – (instrumentation) 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 – (celestial object) SuperNova
    • also SNe (plural form of SN)
  • SNAP – (telescope) SuperNova Acceleration Probe, proposed space telescope
  • SNR – (celestial object) SuperNova Remnant
  • SNU – (astrophysics terminology) Solar Neutrino Units
  • SOARD – (software) Steward Observatory Asteroid Relational Database
  • SOFIA – (telescope) Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy, an infrared telescope currently under construction that will fly inside a modified Boeing 747 aircraft
  • SOHO – (telescope) SOlar and Heliospheric Observatory, a solar space telescope
  • SPARTAN – (telescope) Shuttle Pointed Autonomous Research Tool for AstroNomy, an ultraviolet space telescope that can be released and retrieved by the Space Shuttle
  • SPIRIT – (instrument) SPace InfraRed Imaging Telescope, an infrared instrument on the Midcourse Space Experiment spacecraft
  • SPS – (spacecraft) 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 (such as Earth) in the form of microwaves
  • SPT – (telescope) South Pole Telescope
  • SQIID – (instrumentation) Simultaneous Quad Infrared Imaging Device
  • SQM – (celestial object) Strange Quark Matter
  • SR – (astrophysics terminology) Special Relativity
  • SRON – (organization) Space Research Organization of the Netherlands
  • SS – (celestial object) Symbiotic Star, a type of binary star system containing a red giant and a hot dwarf star that generate a cone-shaped nebula
  • SSI – (instrumentation) Solid-State Imager, an instrument on the Galileo spacecraft
  • SSI – (organization) Space Studies Institute
  • SSP – (instrumentation) Surface Science Package, on board the Huygens probe
  • SSS – (observing program) SuperCOSMOS Sky Surveys
  • SSSPM – (catalog) SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey Proper Motion
  • SST – (telescope) Spectroscopic Survey Telescope
  • SST – (telescope) Spitzer Space Telescope, a space telescope
  • STEPS – (observing program) STEllar Planet Survey
  • STIS – (instrumentation) Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph, an instrument on the Hubble Space Telescope
  • STS – (vehicle) Shuttle Transport System or Space Transportation System
  • STScI – (organization) Space Telescope Science Institute
  • STSDAS – (software) Space Telescope Science Data Analysis System
  • SUGRA – (astrophysics terminology) SUperGRAvity
  • SUPRIME – (instrumentation) SUbaru PRIME focus CAMera, an instrument on the Subaru Telescope
  • SUSI – (telescope) Sydney University Stellar Interferometer, an optical interferometer
  • SWAN – (instrumentation) Solar Wind ANisotropy, an instrument on SOHO
  • SWAS – (telescope) Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite, a submillimeter space telescope
  • SWEEPS – (observing program) – 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 – (observing program) Spitzer Wide-area InfraRed Extragalactic survey
  • SwRI – (organization) Southwest Research Institute
  • SXARI – (celestial object) SX ARIetis, a class of rotating variable stars named after SX Arietis, the archetype for the class
  • SXPHE – (celestial object) SX PhoEnicis, a class of pulsating variable stars named after SX Phoenicis, the archetype for the class

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