astronomy
951 abbreviations
| Abbreviation | Meaning | |
|---|---|---|
| SDO | (celestial object) Scattered Disk Object, Kuiper Belt objects with highly eccentric, highly inclined orbits | |
| 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 | |
| SEAAN | (organization) Southeast Asia Astronomy Network, astronomy research and education among Southeast Asian countries | |
| 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 | |
| SKBO | Scattered Kuiper Belt Object | |
| 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 | |
| SN | (celestial object) SuperNova | |
| SNAP | (telescope) SuperNova Acceleration Probe, proposed space telescope | |
| SNR | Signal-to-Nosie Ratio | |
| 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 |