C
Acronyms
2MASS—Two-Micron All-Sky Survey
A3IV—Aperture Array Astronomical Imaging Verification, European SKA-mid demonstrator
AAAC—Astronomy and Astrophysics Advisory Committee
AAG—Astronomy and Astrophysics Research Grants, an NSF program
AANM—Astronomy and Astrophysics in the New Millennium, the 2001 NRC decadal survey
ACA—Atacama Compact Array, an array of smaller dishes that complement the main array of ALMA
ACT—Atacama Cosmology Telescope
AGASA—Akeno Giant Air Shower Array
AGB—Asymptotic giant branch
AGIS—Advanced Gamma-ray Imaging System
AGN—Active galactic nuclei
AGS—NSF Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences (formerly ATM)
AIC—Accretion-induced collapse
ALFA—Multi-receiver system for H I studies at Arecibo
ALMA—Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
ALTAIR—Access to Large Telescopes for Astronomical Instruction and Research, a 2009 NOAO report
AMS—Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer
ANITA—Antarctic Impulsive Transient Antenna
AO—Adaptive optics
AODP—Adaptive optics development program
APEX—Atacama Pathfinder Experiment, 12-m telescope at ALMA site run by Max-Planck-Institut für Radioastronomie, ESO, and Onsala Space Observatory
ARO—Arizona Radio Observatory
AS—Academia Sinica, Taiwan
ASIAA—Academica Sinica Institute of Astronomy and Astrophysics
ASKAP—Australian SKA Pathfinder
AST—The Division of Astronomical Sciences in the MPS Directorate at NSF
ASTE—Atacama Submillimeter Telescope Experiment, 10-m telescope at ALMA site run by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ) in collaboration with universities in Japan and Chile
ATA—Allen Telescope Array
ATA-42—Current version of ATA with 42 antennas
ATA-256—Allen Telescope Array with 256 antennas
ATI—Advanced Technologies and Instrumentation program at NSF-AST
ATIC—Advanced Thin Ionization Calorimeter
ATST—Advanced Technology Solar Telescope
AUI—Associated Universities, Inc.
AURA—Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy
BAO—Baryon acoustic oscillation
BBH—Binary black hole
BBN—Big bang nucleosynthesis
BESS—Balloon-borne Experiment with Superconducting Spectrometer
BIMA—Berkeley-Illinois-Maryland Association
BLISS—Background-Limited Infrared-Submillimeter Spectrograph
BSRBS—NRAO’s Green Bank Solar Radio Burst Spectrometer
CALISTO—Cryogenic Aperture Large Infrared Space Telescope Observatory
CARA—Center for Atmospheric Research in Antarctica
CARMA—Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy
CASA—Common Astronomy Software Applications, a data reduction package led by NRAO for EVLA and ALMA use
CATE—Cost appraisal and technical evaluation
CCAT—Formerly the Cornell-Caltech Atacama Telescope
CCD—Charge-coupled device
CDMS—Cryogenic Dark Matter Search
CFP—Cosmology and Fundamental Physics, an Astro2010 Science Frontiers Panel
CGM—Circumgalactic medium
Chandra—X-ray telescope in space, a NASA mission
CHARA—Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy, a six-telescope optical-infrared interferometric array
CI—neutral carbon
CLIO—A prototype, underground, cryogenic gravitational-wave detector in Japan
CMB—Cosmic microwave background
CMBPol—Concept for space mission to study the polarization of the CMB
CMD—Color-magnitude diagram
CMF—Core mass function
CNES—Centre National d’Études Spatiales
COBE—Cosmic Background Explorer
COROT—Convection Rotation and Planetary Transits satellite
COS—Cosmic Origins Spectrograph on HST
COSMOS—Cosmological Evolution Survey
COUPP—Chicagoland Observatory for Underground Particle Physics
CP—Charge-parity symmetry
CREAM—Cosmic Ray Energetics and Mass
CSA—Canadian Space Agency
CSO—Caltech Submillimeter Observatory
CTA—Čerenkov Telescope Array
CV—Cataclysmic variable
CXC—Chandra X-ray Observatory Center
DAMA/LIBRA—Dark Matter Experiment/Large Sodium Iodide Bulk for Rare Processes, a Gran Sasso detector
DARPA—Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
DEEP2—Deep Extragalactic Evolutionary Probe 2
DEIMOS—Deep Imaging Multi-Object Spectrograph, a Keck Observatory spectrograph
DES—Dark Energy Survey
DM—Deformable mirror
DOE—Department of Energy
DRS—Disturbance Reduction System for LISA
DWFIR—Deep, Wide-Field IR Survey
EDGES—Experiment to Detect the Global EoR Step, an MIT project
EDELWEISS—Expérience pour Detecter Les Wimps En Site Souterrain
E-ELT—European Extremely Large Telescope project
EHT—Event Horizon Telescope
ELT—Extremely Large Telescope
EMIR—Near-infrared multiobject spectrograph for the Gran Telescopio de Canarias
EMP—Extremely metal poor
EMRI—Extreme mass ratio inspiral
EoR—Epoch of reionization
EOS—Elecromagnetic Observations from Space, an Astro2010 Program Prioritization Panel
ESA—European Space Agency
ESO—European Southern Observatory
EVLA—Enhanced Very Large Array
ExAO—Extreme adaptive optics
EXIST—Energetic X-ray Imaging Survey Telescope
ExoPTF—Exoplanet Task Force
FASR—Frequency-Agile Solar Radiotelescope
FAST—Five-hundred-meter-Aperture Spherical Telescope, under construction in Guizhou Province, China
FOV—Field of view
FRIB—Facility for Rare Isotope Beams
FUSE—Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer
FWHM—Full-width, half-maximum
G—Gravitational coupling constant
GALEX—Galaxy Evolution Explorer
GAN—Galactic Neighborhood, an Astro2010 Science Frontiers Panel
GBM—Gamma-ray-burst monitor
GBT—Robert C. Byrd Green Bank Telescope
GCT—Galaxies Across Cosmic Time, an Astro2010 Science Frontiers Panel
GEMS—Gravity and Extreme Magnetism Small Explorer
GEO—NSF Geosciences Directorate; also, gravitational wave detector
GLAST—Gamma-ray Large Area Space Telescope
GMC—Giant molecular cloud
GMRT—Giant Metre-wave Radio Telescope, operated by the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, India
GMT—Giant Magellan Telescope
GMTO—Giant Magellan Telescope Office
GO—Guest observer
GOODS-N—The northern deep field of the Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey
GPI—Gemini Planet Imager
GR—General relativity
GRB—Gamma-ray burst
GRS—Gravitational Reference System for LPF and LISA
GSMT—Giant Segmented Mirror Telescope
GUT—Grand Unified Theory
GZK—Greisen-Zatsepin-Kuzmin mechanism
H I—Neutral atomic hydrogen
H II—Ionized hydrogen
h(z)—Hubble parameter
HAWC—High-Altitude Water Čerenkov experiment
HERA—Hydrogen Epoch of Reionization Array
HerMES—Herschel Multi-tiered Extragalactic Survey
HESS—High Energy Stereoscopic System
HiRes—High Resolution Fly’s Eye
HPRV—High-Precision Radial-Velocity Spectroscopy
H-R diagram—Hertzsprung-Russell diagram
HST—Hubble Space Telescope
HZ—Habitable zone (not to be confused with Hz [hertz], a frequency of one cycle per second)
ICM—Intracluster medium
IDECS—International Dark Energy Cosmology Survey
IDL—Interactive Data Language
IFU—Integral field unit
IGM—Intergalactic medium
IGW—Inflationary gravitational wave
IMF—Initial mass function, the distribution of stars over mass before any stars have died
IMS—Interferometry Measurement System for LPF and LISA
INAOE—Instituto Nacional de Astrofisica Optica y Electronica
IPAC—Infrared Processing and Analysis Center
IR—Infrared
IRAF—Image Reduction and Analysis Facility
IRAM—Institut de Radioastronomie Millimetrique
IRAS—Infrared Astronomy Satellite
IRDC—Infrared dark cloud
IRS—Infrared Spectrometer, on Spitzer
ISM—Interstellar medium
IXO—International X-ray Observatory
JAXA—Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
JCMT—James Clerk Maxwell Telescope
JDEM—Joint Dark Energy Mission
JPL—Jet Propulsion Laboratory
JWST—James Webb Space Telescope
KAIT—Katzman Automatic Imaging Telescope
KBO—Kuiper belt object
KI—Keck Interferometer
ΛCDM—Lambda cold dark matter
LAGEOS—Laser Geodynamics (satellite)
LANL—Los Alamos National Laboratory
LAT—Large Area Telescope, an instrument on the Fermi satellite
L-band—An IEEE-designated band covering roughly 16 to 40 cm
LBT—Large Binocular Telescope
LBTI—Large Binocular Telescope Interferometer
LBV—Luminous blue variable
LCGT—Large Cryogenic Gravitational-wave Telescope, under consideration in Japan
LGS—Laser guide star
LHC—Large Hadron Collider
LIGO—Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory
LISA—Laser Interferometer Space Antenna
LLR—Lunar Laser Ranging
LMC—Large Magellanic Cloud
LMT—Large Millimeter Telescope
LMXB—Low-mass X-ray binary
LOFAR—Low Frequency Array for radio astronomy, a low-frequency antenna array centered in the Netherlands
LOPES—LOFAR prototype station
LPF—LISA Pathfinder, a NASA mission
LSS—Large-scale structure
LSST—Large Synoptic Survey Telescope
LUX—Large Underground Xenon detector
LWA—Long Wavelength Array
MAGIC—Major Atmospheric Gamma-ray Imaging Čerenkov Telescope
MBH—Massive black hole
MCAO—Multiconjugate adaptive optics
MeerKAT—Meer Karoo Array Telescope, a SKA-mid pathfinder in South Africa
MERLIN—Multi-Element Radio Linked Interferometer Network
MHD—Magnetohydrodynamic
MIDEX—Mid-size Explorer mission, capped at $250 million, excluding launch
MIPS—Multiband Imaging Photometer for SIRTF, on Spitzer
MMT—Multi-Mirror Telescope
MMTO—MMT Office
MOS—Multi-Object Spectrograph
MOSFIRE—Multi-Object Spectrometer for Infrared Exploration
MPF—Microlensing Planet Finder
MPS—NSF directorate of Mathematical and Physical Sciences
MREFC—Major Research Equipment and Facilities Construction, an NSF program
MRI—Major Research Instrumentation, an NSF program
MSP—Millisecond pulsar
MSSM—Minimal supersymmetric standard model
MUSTANG—Multiplexed Squid TES Array at Ninety Gigahertz, a bolometer array on the GBT
MWA—Murchison Widefield Array, a low-frequency radio (at frequencies from 80 to 300 MHz) interferometer array to be built in Western Australia
NAA—North American Array
NAASC—North American ALMA Science Center
NAIC—National Astronomy and Ionospheric Center
NAOJ—National Astronomical Observatory of Japan
NASA—National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NEO—Near-Earth object
NFIRAOS—Narrow-Field Infrared Adaptive Optics System for the Thirty-Meter Telescope
NGST—Next-Generation Space Telescope
NINS—National Institutes of Natural Sciences, Japan
NIRCam—Near-Infrared Camera on JWST
NIRSpec—Near-Infrared Spectrograph IFU on JWST
NIRSS—Near-Infrared Sky Surveyor
NIST—National Institute of Standards and Technology, Department of Commerce
NOAO—National Optical Astronomy Observatory
NOvA—A neutrino-oscillation detector under construction in Minnesota
NRAO—National Radio Astronomy Observatory
NRC—National Research Council, USA; also, National Research Council of Canada
NRL—Naval Research Laboratory, Department of the Navy
NSC—National Science Council, Taiwan
NSF—National Science Foundation
NSO—National Solar Observatory
NST—New Solar Telescope
NuSTAR—Nuclear Spectroscopic Telescope Array, a NASA Small Explorer mission featuring an imaging hard-X-ray telescope, to be launched in 2011
OHEP—Office of High Energy Physics, at DOE
OIR—Optical-infrared; also, Optical and Infrared Astronomy from the Ground, an Astro2010 Program Prioritization Panel
OPP—Office of Polar Programs, NSF
OVRO—Owens Valley Radio Observatory
OVSA—New Jersey Institute of Technology’s Owens Valley Solar Array
PACS—Photodetector Array Camera and Spectrometer, on Herschel
PAG—Particle Astrophysics and Gravitation, an Astro2010 Program Prioritization Panel
PAH—Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon
PAIRITEL—Peters Automated Infrared Imaging Telescope, which conducts robotic transient surveys
PAMELA—Payload for Antimatter Exploration and Light-nuclei Astrophysics
PAPER—Precision Array to Probe the Epoch of Reionization
PdBI—Plateau de Bure Interferometer, a millimeter wave array in France, operated by IRAM
PFI—Planet Formation Instrument for the proposed Thirty-Meter Telescope
PNGA—Particle, Nuclear, and Gravitational-Wave Astrophysics, a panel from AANM
PPN—Parametrized Post-Newtonian
PPP—Program Prioritization Panel
PSF—Planetary Systems and Star Formation, an Astro2010 Science Frontiers Panel; also, point-spread function
PTF—Palomar Transient Factory
Python—An interactive data-analysis language
QCD—Quantum chromodynamics
QSO—Quasi-stellar object
R&A—Research and analysis
R&D—Research and development
ReSTAR—Renewing Small Telescopes for Astronomical Research, a 2007 NOAO report
RFI—Radio-frequency interference
RGB—Red-giant branch
RICE—Radio Ice Čerenkov Experiment
RMS—Radio, millimeter, and submillimeter; also, Radio, Millimeter, and Submillimeter Astronomy from the Ground, an Astro2010 Program Prioritization Panel
ROSAT—Röntgen Satellite
RRAT—Rotating radio transient
RV—Radial velocity
RXTE—Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer
SAFIRE—Submillimeter and Far-Infrared Explorer
SAMURAI—Science of AGNs and Masers with Unprecedented Resolution in Astronomical Imaging
SCUBA—Submillimetre Common-User Bolometer Array, operated on the JCMT
SCUBA-2—Successor to SCUBA with many more detectors
SDO—Solar Dynamics Observatory
SDSS—Sloan Digital Sky Survey
SETI—Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence
SF—Star formation
SFE—Star-formation efficiency
SFP—Science Frontiers Panel
SFR—Star-formation rate
SFSR—Single-field, slow-roll inflation
Sgr A*—Sagittarius A*, a radio source at the center of the Milky Way Galaxy
SHARC II—Submillimeter High Angular Resolution Camera II, at CSO
SIM—Space Interferometry Mission
SIRTF—Space Infrared Telescope Facility, now Spitzer
SKA—Square Kilometer Array
SLAC—Stanford Linear Accelerator Center
SMA—Submillimeter Array
SMARTS—Small and Moderate Aperture Research Telescope System
SMBH—Supermassive black hole
SMC—Small Magellanic Cloud
SMEX—Small-scale Explorer mission, costing less than $150 million, excluding launch
S/N—Signal-to-noise ratio
SNe—Supernovae
SOAR—Southern Astrophysical Research Telescope
SOFIA—Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy
SOLIS—Synoptic Optical Long-term Investigations of the Sun
SOML—Steward Observatory Mirror Laboratory
SPHERE—Spectro-Polarimetric High-contrast Exoplanet Research, a VLT instrument
SPICA—Space Infared Telescope for Cosmology and Astrophysics
SPIRE—Spectral and Polarimetric Imaging Receiver, on Herschel
SPIRIT—Space Infrared Interferometric Telescope
SPST—South Pole Submillimeter-wave Telescope
SPT—South Pole Telescope
SSE—Stars and Stellar Evolution, an Astro2010 Science Frontiers Panel
STIS—Space Telescope Imaging Spectograph
STScI—Space Telescope Science Institute
SZ—Sunyaev-Zel’dovich
SZA—Sunyaev-Zel’dovich Array
SZE—Sunyaev-Zel’dovich effect, a distortion in the spectrum of the CMB caused by gas in clusters
TES—Transition-edge sensors
TIGER—Trans-Iron Galactic Element Recorder
TMT—Thirty-Meter Telescope
TPC—Time-projection chamber for the XENON100 experiment
TPF—Terrestrial Planet Finder
TRL—Technology readiness level
TSIP—Telescope System Instrumentation Program
UHECR—Ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays
ULDB—Ultralong-duration balloon
URO—University Radio Observatories (currently includes CSO, CARMA, UMASS, and the ATA)
USAF—U.S. Air Force
UV—Ultraviolet
VAO—Virtual Astronomical Observatory, the operational phase of the National Virtual Observatory
VERITAS—Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System, a cosmic ray detector
VIRGO—A European gravitational-wave detector
VISTA—Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy
VLA—Very Large Array
VLBA—Very Long Baseline Array
VLBI—Very Long Baseline Interferometry
VLT—ESO’s Very Large Telescope
VO—Virtual Observatory
VSOP-2—A Japanese radio telescope satellite that could be used with ground-based VLBI antennas
w(z)—Dark energy equation-of-state parameter
WArP—WIMP Argon Program
WD—White dwarf
WFC-3—Wide Field Camera 3, a Hubble instrument
WFIRST—Wide-Field Infrared Survey Telescope
WFMOS—Wide-Field Fiber-Fed Optical MOS, a proposed Gemini instrument
WFS—Wave-front sensor
WHIM—Warm-hot intergalactic medium
WIMP—Weakly interacting massive particle
WISE—Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer
WIYN—Wisconsin-Indiana-Yale-NOAO Telescope
WMAP—Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe
XENON100—A WIMP detector
XENON1T—A WIMP detector
XGS—X-ray grating spectrometer
XMASS—A WIMP detector
XMM-Newton—ESA’s X-ray Multi-Mirror Mission
XRSO—X-ray spectroscopy observatory