951 abbreviations
Abbreviation Meaning
IUE (telescope) International Ultraviolet Explorer, an ultraviolet space telescope
IUEDAC (organization) IUE satellite Data Analysis Center
IWCA (meeting) International Workshop on Cometary Astronomy
JAC (publication) Japan Astronomical Circular
JAC (organization) Joint Astronomy Centre, the organization that operates the United Kingdom Infrared Telescope and the James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JAPOA (organization) Japan Amateur Photoelectric Observers Association
JAXA (organization) Japan Aerospace eXploration Agency
JCMT (telescope) James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JD (astrophysics terminology) Julian Date, an alternative time commonly used in astronomy
JET-X (telescope) Joint European Telescope for X-ray astronomy
JGR (publication) Journal of Geophysical Research
JILA (organization) formerly Joint Institute for Laboratory Astrophysics
JKT (telescope) Jacobus Kapteyn Telescope
JPL (organization) Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a research center associated with NASA
JSGA (telescope/organization) Japan SpaceGuard Association, a Japanese telescope used to track near-Earth asteroids and space junk
JWST (telescope) James Webb Space Telescope, a planned space telescope that will supersede the Hubble Space Telescope
KAIT (telescope) Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope
KAO (telescope) Kuiper Airborne Observatory
KBO (celestial object) Kuiper Belt Object
KCAO (organization) Kumamoto Civil Astronomical Observatory
KIC (catalog) Kepler Input Catalog, a catalog of stars with potential extrasolar planets to be observed by the Kepler Mission
KPNO (organization) Kitt Peak National Observatory
L (astrophysics terminology) Lagrange, Lagrange points
L (catalog) Luyten, a catalog of proper motion measurements of stars
LAD-C (instrumentation) Large Area Debris Collector, a canceled program that was to collect and catalog low orbital dust on the International Space Station
LAEFF (organization) Laboratorio de Astrofisica Espacial y Fisica Fundamental, a Spanish astronomy research organization
LAL (catalog) LALande, a historical catalog of stars
LAMOST (telescope) Large sky Area Multi-Object fiber Spectroscopic Telescope
LANL (organization) Los Alamos National Laboratory
LASCO (instrumentation) Large Angle and Spectrometric COronagraph, an instrument on the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory
Laser (instrumentation) Light Amplification by Stimulated Emission of Radiation
LBN (catalog) Lynds Bright Nebula, a catalog of bright nebulae
LBNL (organization) Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory
LBT (telescope) Large Binocular Telescope
LBV (celestial object) Luminous Blue Variable, a type of very bright variable star
LCDM (astrophysics terminology) Lambda Cold Dark Matter, any model for structure formation in the universe that includes dark energy
LCOGT network of autonomous robotic telescopes (2m, 1m and 40 cm) at 7 sites in both hemispheres
LCROSS (spacecraft) Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite
LCRS (observing program) Las Campanas Redshift Survey
LDN (catalog) Lynds Dark Nebula, a catalog of dark nebulae
LDS (catalog) Luyten Double Star
LEO (astrophysics terminology) Low Earth Orbit
LEST (telescope) Large Earth-based Solar Telescope
LETGS (instrumentation) Low Energy Transmission Gratings Spectrometer, an instrument on the Chandra X-Ray Observatory
LF (astrophysics terminology) Luminosity Function, the spatial density of objects such as star clusters and galaxies as a function of their luminosity
LFT (catalog) Luyten Five-Tenths, a catalog of stars with proper motions exceeding 0.5"
LGA (instrumentation) Low Gain Antenna
LGM (celestial object) Little Green Men, a humorous name applied to pulsars soon after their discovery
LHEA (organization) Laboratory for High Energy Astrophysics
LHS (catalog) Luyten Half-Second, a catalog of stars with proper motions exceeding 0.5"