Pointed Observatory · Directed · Agency-led · Launched on April 25, 1990 · Extended Mission · LCC: $4.2B/$14B (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
ScopeActive 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 Hubble, papers published May 1, 1990 to January 1, 2024. Methods/LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For Hubble, papers published from 1990 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. Methods
18,927
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods
1,185,287
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. Methods
355
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. Methods
597
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. Methods
9.6
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. Methods
4,799
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. Methods
1,872
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
We searched NASA’s Science Explorer (SciX) for peer-reviewed articles naming Hubble in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces.
((=abs:("Hubble Space Telescope" OR "Hubble Space" OR "Hubble telescope" OR "Hubble imaging" OR "Hubble images" OR "Hubble image" OR "Hubble imagery" OR "Hubble photometry" OR "Hubble archive" OR "Hubble Legacy" OR "Hubble Deep Field" OR "Hubble Deep Fields" OR "Hubble Ultra Deep Field" OR "Hubble Ultradeep Field" OR "Hubble eXtreme Deep Field" OR "Hubble Frontier Fields" OR "Hubble Frontier Field" OR "Hubble Frontiers Fields" OR "Hubble Source Catalog" OR "Hubble Source Catalogue" OR "Hubble Key Project" OR "Hubble ultraviolet" OR "Hubble UV Legacy" OR "Hubble UV Globular Cluster" OR "Hubble Spectroscopic Legacy" OR "Hubble Tarantula Treasury" OR "Carnegie Hubble Program" OR "Galaxy zoo: Hubble" OR "Lensing and Supernova survey with Hubble" OR "Lensing and Supernovae survey with Hubble" OR "Lensing and Supernova with Hubble" OR "Hubble WFC3" OR "Hubble STIS" OR "Hubble ACS" OR "Hubble COS" OR "Hubble Wide Field Camera" OR "Hubble and Spitzer" OR "Hubble and James Webb" OR "Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph" OR "Advanced Camera for Surveys" OR "Wide Field Camera 3" OR "Wide Field and Planetary Camera" OR "Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrometer" OR "Cosmic Origins Spectrograph" OR "Goddard High Resolution Spectrograph") OR ((abs:HST OR abs:STIS OR abs:NICMOS OR abs:WFPC OR abs:WFPC2 OR abs:WFC3) AND (abs:telescope OR abs:imaging OR abs:images OR abs:observations OR abs:observed OR abs:photometry OR abs:spectroscopy OR abs:spectra OR abs:spectrum OR abs:ultraviolet OR abs:UV OR abs:optical OR abs:infrared OR abs:archival OR abs:survey OR abs:resolution OR abs:galaxies OR abs:galaxy OR abs:stars OR abs:star OR abs:cluster OR abs:clusters) AND collection:astronomy) OR (abs:GHRS AND (abs:ultraviolet OR abs:UV OR abs:spectrograph) AND collection:astronomy AND NOT (=abs:"giant HII" OR =abs:"giant H II")) OR facility:HST)) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[1990-05 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")
