uranology enjoy acronyms . Some of them are remindful , magical , and memorable . Others are more labored in their execution . This is an ode strange acronyms , from the cleverly complex to the heart - rolling fail .
Acronyms are rife when talking about astronomy and space scientific discipline — in the past few months I ’ve coveredJPL , JAXA , OCO2,ISEE-3,SDO , IRIS , DSN , GRBs and UXOs , a whole host ofCubeSats , DTMs , IRNSS-1B , GPM , DOVES , MRO , LADEE , SPHERES , and far , far too many other welter of letters to easy remember . For the most part , they make ready to hand shred for finding related articles later , but are n’t particularly memorable or meaningful to anyone outside the subject area .
https://gizmodo.com/spheres-on-the-iss-1544785559
I ’ve always had a soft office for the main competing theories for sour matter : MAssive Compact Halo Objects ( MACHOs ) and Weakly Interacting Massive Particles ( WIMPs ) . They thematically work , they have a bit of Special Air Service , and despite not being a practice astrophysicist , I remember exactly what they resist for every prison term the topic comes up . Best of all , I remember them as a join set of concepts , a pair of theories related to the same deep phenomenon . As far as acronyms go , that ’s pretty much a arrant curing of feature .
Meanwhile , a few of the awesome instruments pick out for the2020 Mars roverhave overly - laboured acronym - names , or , strange still , bunglesome acronym - names that do n’t actually agree up with the extended phrases . All my love to MOXIE , but it ’s never a good sign when your acronym contains a nested acronym . Then again , I once in earnest worked onBOOST , a component of BEAST as part of an alliterative investigation of the CMB ( Cosmic Microwave Background ) , so I ca n’t tease too hard .
uranologist and electronic computer engineer Glen Petitpas at the Harvard - Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics has beencollecting the other form of acronyms . You love the ones , where the acronym clearly came first and the name was awkwardly hale around it to fit , or are so thematically off - root that you do n’t even know how scientists can write serious pedantic papers involving them without snicker . Here ’s a few of my so - bad - they’re - good favourite :
5MUSES : 5 MegaJansky unbiassed Spitzer Extragalactic Survey is an instrumentobserving programfor theSpitzer Space Telescopethat picks up light somewhere between nearby spiral galaxy and Ultra Luminous Infrared Galaxies ( ULIRGs , for a bonus acronym ) . A MegaJansky ( MJy ) is a flux building block to appraise spectral flux density or apparitional irradiance tantamount to 10–20 kg s–2 .
gold : Astronomical MultiBEam Recombiner is an musical instrument on theVery Large Telescope Interferometerused to blend beams from several telescopes into one sign . It ’s also a cheater of an acronym for shamelessly gutsiness letters from the middle of words . Then again , at least it isn’tBaR - SPOrt(BAlloon - digest Radiometers for Sky Polarisation ObseRvaTions),FaNTOmM(Fabry - perot of New Technology for the Observatoire du mont Megantic ) , orGRAPE(GRAvity PipE ) .
CANGAROO iii in the Autralian outback , and a kangaroo in New South Wales . Image creditsCANGAROO , snowmanradio
CANGAROO : collaborationism between Australian and Nippon for a Gamma Ray Observatory in the Outback , an international collaborationto front forgamma ray burststhat is just too cute for words . Quite a few other projects jump on the animal bandwagon , likeBIGRAT(BIcentennial Gamma RAy Telescope),BiSON(Birmingham Solar Oscillations connection),CAT(Cosmic Anisotropy Telescope),COBRA(Cadmium - Zn - telluride O - neutrino double - Beta Research Apparatus ) , and many others , admit the myserious 25BEARS , some instrument onASTEthat someone has to interpret for me . ( jolly please ? )
FASTSOUND : FMOS Ankoku Shindou Tansa Subaru Observation Understanding Nature of Dark energy may be the definition of trying to hard with multilingual nested acronyms . FMOS is Fiber Multi - Object Spectrograph , while Ankoku Shindou Tansa translates from Japanese as Dark Oscillation Survey . It ’s acosmology research programlooking at galaxy redshift using the FMOS legal instrument .
ARISTOTELES : Applications and Research Involving Space Technologies Observing the Earth ’s study from Low Earth orbiting Satellite is not so much a name , as an entire prison term pack into a single word , cherry - picking whichever Pb - letters agree the report . It was supposed to be an ESA ( European Space Agency ) orbiter to look into gravitational and magnetic fields , but was cancelled before ever commence a probability , mayhap because snickering about the overly - complicated acro - name was getting too embarrassing .
MAGIC , two imaging atmospherical Cherenkov scope in the Canary Islands . Image credit : The MAGIC radical
Magic of course has its position in astrophysics , starting with MAGIC ( Major Atmospheric Gamma - beam of light Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes)detects particle showersfrom gamma rays . DAZLE ( Dark Ages Z Lyman - alpha Explorer ) adds some serious pizazz to any astro - outing , as well asa near infrared narrowband differential imagerto find redshift . The most classic of mages is MERLIN ( Multi - Element Radio Linked Interferometer connection ) , which wasan array of radio telescopes , but has since been upgrade toe - MERLIN . Another iconic wizard is GANDALF ( Gas and Absorption Line Fitting)algorithmto simultaneously agree emission and absorption line , seperating the comparative share of stars , nebula , and galaxy . Of naturally astronomy has a dark side , so his foe SAURON ( Spectroscopic Areal Unit for Research on Optical Nebulae ) is also in gaming , expect at prolate and lenticular galaxy .
From these example , you may be getting the feeling that acronym scan be a method acting to pinch slang , insults , and other not - so - self-respecting declarations into conventional configurations . You ’d be right . A few notable examples areFATBOY(Florida Analysis Tool Born of long for high - caliber scientific data),PINTofALE(Package for the INTeractive analysis of Line Emission),SHIT(Super Huge Interferometric Telescope ) , and for all the researchers who came up with these clever , clever acronyms , WISEASS(Weizmann Institute of Science Experimental Astrophysics Spectroscopy System )
But by far my favourite of every astronomy acronym I ’ve come across is :
GADZOOKS ! Gadolinium Antineutrino Detector Zealously Outperforming Old Kamiokande , Super ! is a proposed / under - constructiondedicated trial facilitynear the Kamioka mine and Super Kamiokande sensor . Yes , it has an exclamation point . Yes , I love the scientific discipline team even more just for that exuberance .
Do you have any favourite horrid acronyms ? Have you worked on project with names so absurd it ’s hard to take the
Tip viaDarkSapiensandJJ Eldridge .
Astronomy
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