astronomy
951 abbreviations
Abbreviation | Meaning | |
---|---|---|
RASC | (organization) Royal Astronomical Society of Canada | |
RASS | (observing program/catalog) ROSAT All-Sky Survey, used as both a name for a survey with ROSAT and the catalogs produced from the survey | |
RC | (celestial object) Red Clump, a type of metal-rich red giant star | |
RC | (catalog) Reference Catalogue, a catalog of nearby galaxies | |
RC | (organization/telescope) Ritchey Chretien, a manufacturer of amateur and professional telescope equipment; also the telescopes themselves | |
RC2 | Reference Catalogue, 2nd edition | |
RC3 | Reference Catalogue, 3rd edition | |
RCB | (celestial object) R Coronae Borealis, a class of eruptive variable stars named after R Coronae Borealis, the archetype for the class | |
RDI | (astrophysics terminology) Radiation Driven Implosion | |
RECONS | (organization) Research Consortium on Nearby Stars, a survey of nearby stars | |
RGB | (celestial object) Red-Giant Branch, a star that is evolving from a main-sequence star into a red giant | |
RGO | (organization) Royal Greenwich Observatory | |
RLOF | (astrophysics terminology) Roche Lobe Overflow, the result of when an object in a binary system is larger than its roche lobe (i.e. when an object in a binary system expands to a radius where tidal forces become stronger than gravitational forces) | |
RLQ | (celestial object) Radio Loud Quasar, a quasar that produces strong radio emission | |
RNGC | (catalog) Revised New General Catalog | |
RORF | (astrophysics terminology) Radio/Optical Reference Frame, an inertial reference frame based on extragalactic radio sources | |
ROSAT | (telescope) ROentgen SATellite, an X-ray space telescope | |
ROTSE | (observing program/telescope) Robotic Optical Transient Search Experiment, an observing program for detecting the optical counterparts of gamma ray bursts; also the telescopes used in this program | |
RQQ | (celestial object) Radio Quiet Quasar a quasar that produces weak radio emission | |
RRAT | (celestial object) Rotating Radio Transient, a population of rotating neutron stars that produce periodic bursts of emission that are separated by intervals of minutes or hours | |
RRL | (celestial object) RR Lyrae, a class of pulsating variable stars named after RR Lyrae, the archetype of the class | |
RSA | (catalog) Revised Shapley Ames, a catalog of nearby galaxies | |
RSA | (organization) Russian Space Agency | |
RSAA | (organization) Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics, part of the Institute of Advanced Studies at the Australian National University | |
RSG | (celestial object) Red Super Giant | |
RSN | (celestial object) Radio SuperNova | |
RTG | (instrumentation) Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator, a type of power generator used in spacecraft that travel far from the Sun | |
RV | (astrophysics terminology) Radial Velocity, the velocity along the line of sight | |
RX | (catalog) ROSAT X-ray, a catalog of sources detected by ROSAT | |
RXTE | (telescope) Rossi X-Ray Timing Explorer, a space telescope designed to observe variability in X-ray emission | |
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 | |
SAVAL | (organization) Sociedad Astronómica de Valparaíso y Viña del Mar, Chile. Amateur Astronomy. Founded in 1956. | |
SB | (celestial object) Spectroscopic Binary | |
SB | (astrophysics terminology) Surface Brightness | |
SB1 | Spectroscopic Binary, single lined spectra | |
SB2 | Spectroscopic Binary, double lined spectra | |
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 |