First off, I would like to point out that Stellar Vampires are not vampires that excel at all things vampiric. They are actually stars that form by taking material from other stars. And also happen to be an excellent name for a rock band.
But my real reason for linking to this story (which is likely old news to all of you wacky astronomy lovers out there), is to point out the technology that was used to find these blood-sucking stars. I don't want to confuse you with all the technical-scientific jargon, but the name of the telescope is the Very Large Telescope. The website says it "is the world's largest and most advanced optical telescope." For such a fancy-pants telescope it doesn't have much of a name.
Since the dawn of time scientists have named things with dull technical codes or words nobody can pronounce, single-handedly creating the need for acronyms. The craze just grew from there to expand to business terms (EOD), computer lingo (ASCII) and eventually text messaging (WTF).
At least the Very Large Telescope has 4 smaller Unit Telescopes (which are just large) with meaningful names thought up by a kid in Chile from a town I can't pronounce. So thats nice.
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