Acronyms are handy for making long names easier to write, like SETI or NASA. There are so many organizations, facilities, and projects in the world of space exploration that acronyms are everywhere, and making them easy to pronounce and remember is important. But some groups go out of their way to come up with a clever acronym that strains credulity. Glen Petitpas collected these into a master list you may find amusing. Some examples:
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ABRACADABRA stands for A Broadband/Resonant Approach to Cosmic Axion Detection with an Amplifying B-field Ring Apparatus. You get the feeling they could have explained this more simply.
ARMPIT stands for ASKAP Rotation Measure and Polarisation InvestigaTion. Not only is that forced with the T, it’s an acronym within an acronym (ASKAP is the Australian Square Kilometer Array Pathfinder).
FIREFLY somehow means Fitting IteRativEly For Likelihood analYsis. They had to go really weird to get that one to work.
GADZOOKS! is for Gadolinium Antineutrino Detector Zealously Outperforming Old Kamiokande, Super! The exclamation point is crucial for some reason.
GANDALF was created from Gas AND Absorption Line Fitting algorithm.
PEPSI means Potsdam Echelle Polarimetric and Spectroscopic Instrument.
SHIT stands for Super Huge Interferometric Telescope.
My favorite is WISEASS, which is the Weizmann Institute of Science Experimental Astrophysics Spectroscopy System. It’s not forced at all, and I’ll always remember it.
There are a lot more, and you will probably find funnier ones in there somewhere. The list is called Dumb Or Overly Forced Astronomical Acronyms Site, which of course lends itself to the acronym DOOFAAS. -via Kottke
(Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech)
Source: neatorama