Astrophysics

Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer (FUSE)

Pointed Observatory · Competed · PI-led · Launched on June 24, 1999 · Completed · LCC: $135M/$298M (2025 $)Life-cycle cost: NASA’s reported cost to build, launch, and operate a mission through its prime mission, plus documented partner contributions, in 2025 dollars. Extended missions are not included. Methods · Wikipedia

Scope Active Mission WindowActivePapers published from the first full month after science operations begin through two years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. For FUSE, papers published January 1, 2000 to November 1, 2009. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For FUSE, papers published from 2000 to November 3, 2026. Methods
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed papers we found that name the mission or its instruments in their titles, abstracts, or keywords. Papers that used the data without naming it are missed. Methods799
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods38,180
Citation indices
h-indexh-index: the largest h such that h papers have at least h citations each. It only grows with time, so older missions score higher. Methods94
g-indexg-index: the largest g for which the g most-cited papers together hold at least g² citations. Like the h-index, but it lets the most-cited papers count for more. Methods147
m-indexm-index: a mission’s h-index divided by the years since its first peer-reviewed paper. It falls every 1 January even when nothing else changes; the figure shown is as of November 3, 2026. It also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods3.5
toritori (total research impact, from SciX): for every paper citing one of the mission’s papers, 1 divided by the citing paper’s reference count times the cited paper’s author count, summed, with self-citations removed. It favors citations from papers with short reference lists and from outside the mission’s own authors. Computed over the tracked citation graph, which can be slightly incomplete. Always over every tracked publication to date, whichever scope is chosen. Methods189
riqriq (research impact quotient): 1,000 times the square root of tori, divided by the years since the mission’s first paper. A rate, not a total, so it does not keep growing with age the way the h-index and tori do. Like tori, always over every tracked publication to date. Methods509

Publications and citations by year (lifetime)

Publications per yearCumulative citations

Institutional contributions (lifetime)The institutions SciX lists for each paper’s authors, as printed on the paper, located through the Research Organization Registry. A square counts a paper once, however many of its authors worked there. Methods

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Tracked publications over the lifetime (799)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. A Unified Representation of Gas-Phase Element Depletions in the Interstellar Medium

    Jenkins, Edward B., 2009, ApJ

    938 lifetime citations

  2. Overview of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Mission

    Moos, H. W., 2000, ApJ

    654 lifetime citations

  3. Piecing together the X-ray background: bolometric corrections for active galactic nuclei

    Vasudevan, R. V., 2007, MNRAS

    466 lifetime citations

  4. Highly Ionized High-Velocity Gas in the Vicinity of the Galaxy

    Sembach, K. R., 2003, ApJS

    464 lifetime citations

  5. On-Orbit Performance of the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Satellite

    Sahnow, D. J., 2000, ApJ

    446 lifetime citations

  6. The Discordance of Mass-Loss Estimates for Galactic O-Type Stars

    Fullerton, A. W., 2006, ApJ

    363 lifetime citations

  7. A Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Survey of Interstellar Molecular Hydrogen in Translucent Clouds

    Rachford, Brian L., 2002, ApJ

    306 lifetime citations

  8. A Library of Theoretical Ultraviolet Spectra of Massive, Hot Stars for Evolutionary Synthesis

    Leitherer, Claus, 2010, ApJS

    303 lifetime citations

  9. What Is the Total Deuterium Abundance in the Local Galactic Disk?

    Linsky, Jeffrey L., 2006, ApJ

    301 lifetime citations

  10. Extreme Feedback and the Epoch of Reionization: Clues in the Local Universe

    Heckman, Timothy M., 2011, ApJ

    293 lifetime citations

  11. A High-Resolution Survey of Low-Redshift QSO Absorption Lines: Statistics and Physical Conditions of O VI Absorbers

    Tripp, Todd M., 2008, ApJS

    292 lifetime citations

  12. Constrained Simulations of the Real Universe. II. Observational Signatures of Intergalactic Gas in the Local Supercluster Region

    Kravtsov, Andrey V., 2002, ApJ

    266 lifetime citations

  13. Ultraviolet Survey of CO and H₂ in Diffuse Molecular Clouds: The Reflection of Two Photochemistry Regimes in Abundance Relationships

    Sheffer, Y., 2008, ApJ

    260 lifetime citations

  14. Characterizing the Circumgalactic Medium of Nearby Galaxies with HST/COS and HST/STIS Absorption-line Spectroscopy

    Stocke, John T., 2013, ApJ

    258 lifetime citations

  15. Galaxy Formation: Cold Dark Matter, Feedback, and the Hubble Sequence

    Sommer-Larsen, Jesper, 2003, ApJ

    254 lifetime citations

  16. Lower mass loss rates in O-type stars: Spectral signatures of dense clumps in the wind of two Galactic O4 stars

    Bouret, J.-C., 2005, A&A

    249 lifetime citations

  17. The Low-z Intergalactic Medium. III. H I and Metal Absorbers at z < 0.4

    Danforth, Charles W., 2008, ApJ

    241 lifetime citations

  18. Chandra Discovery of a Tree in the X-Ray Forest toward PKS 2155-304: The Local Filament?

    Nicastro, Fabrizio, 2002, ApJ

    227 lifetime citations

  19. An HST/COS Survey of the Low-redshift Intergalactic Medium. I. Survey, Methodology, and Overall Results

    Danforth, Charles W., 2016, ApJ

    217 lifetime citations

  20. A Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer Survey of Interstellar Molecular Hydrogen in the Small and Large Magellanic Clouds

    Tumlinson, Jason, 2002, ApJ

    215 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming FUSE in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.

((=abs:"Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer" OR =abs:"Far Ultraviolet Spectrographic Explorer" OR =abs:"Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopy Explorer" OR =abs:"Far Ultraviolet Explorer" OR facility:FUSE OR (abs:FUSE AND collection:astronomy AND NOT (=abs:"file system" OR =abs:"file systems" OR =abs:"SIT-FUSE")))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2000-01 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "ACPD" OR "AIASJ" OR "AMTD" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "BGD" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "CliPD" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "ESDD" OR "ESSDD" OR "ESuDD" OR "GID" OR "GMDD" OR "GeCAS" OR "HESSD" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NHESD" OR "NPGD" OR "NewSc" OR "OcScD" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SOILD" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "TCD" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Added after review (1)

  1. Evidence of H₂ four-wave mixing in 2175 Å "bump" stars Analyses archived FUSE spectra of OB stars to identify unexplained absorption lines. Decision 🤖

Removed after review (4)

  1. The FUV detector for the cosmic origins spectrograph on the Hubble Space Telescope Describes the far-ultraviolet detector of Hubble's Cosmic Origins Spectrograph; names FUSE only as design heritage. Decision 👨
  2. Arcus ultraviolet spectrograph: enabling far-ultraviolet spectroscopy with the Arcus X-ray probe Describes the proposed Arcus ultraviolet spectrograph; mentions FUSE only as a performance benchmark. Decision 🤖
  3. WSO and the winds of massive stars: the gate to the metal-poor Local Universe Science case for the proposed World Space Observatory; uses no FUSE data. Decision 🤖
  4. The scientific objectives of the ASTROSAT mission of ISRO Overview of India's ASTROSAT mission; names FUSE only in a list of observatories. Decision 🤖