List of Astronomy Acronyms - Z

Z

• 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
• ZHR – (astrophysics terminology) Zenith Hourly Rate, the maximum number of meteors per hour that may be observed during a meteor shower