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
Read more about this topic: List Of Astronomy Acronyms