Astrophysics

SIRTF

6,746 tracked publications and 448,042 citations from 2004–2026. Spitzer Space Telescope. Launched 2003. Life-cycle cost: $1.6B in 2025 dollars. Active Mission Window January 1, 2004 to February 1, 2022: 5,914 publications, 582 top-10% credit.

Pointed Observatory · h-index 255 · 1,151 papers with 100+ citations · prime mission ended 2009

Lifetime

Scope Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Papers published from the first full month after science operations begin through 2 years after the prime mission ends. Citations are counted through the third calendar year after each paper appears. Methods Every tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. Methods

Key measures

Active Mission Window · papers January 1, 2004 to February 1, 2022
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed research papers we found for the mission. The list may not be complete. Methods5,914
CitationsCitations received by the tracked publications in the selected scope. The two windowed scopes count each paper’s citations only within its citation window. Methods145,378
Mean citations per publicationMean citations: total citations divided by tracked publications in the selected scope. One blockbuster paper can lift it. Methods25
Median citations per publicationMedian citations: the middle paper’s citation count in the selected scope; half the papers have more, half fewer. A single blockbuster sways it less than the mean. Methods15
Uncited publicationsUncited publications: papers with no citations in the selected scope. Methods133 (2.2%)
Top-10% creditTop 10%: among the 10% most-cited papers from this division’s missions, ranked against papers published around the same time. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods582 · 12% of division
Top-1% creditTop 1%: among the 1% most-cited papers from this division’s missions within the selected window. Not adjusted for publication year. A paper naming several missions is split evenly among the missions in this division that claim it, so counts can be fractional. Methods44 · 8.8% of division
Lifetime indices · every tracked publication to date, in any scope
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. Methods255
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. Methods407
m-index, as of October 4, 2026m-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, so it belongs to the date shown; it also discounts the long operating life that larger missions paid for. Methods11.1
toritori (total research impact, from ADS): 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. Methods976
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. Methods1,301

Tracked publications

  1. The Infrared Array Camera (IRAC) for the Spitzer Space Telescope

    Fazio, G. G., 2004, ApJS

    3,094 citations

  2. The Spitzer Space Telescope Mission

    Werner, M. W., 2004, ApJS

    2,869 citations

  3. Infrared Emission from Interstellar Dust. IV. The Silicate-Graphite-PAH Model in the Post-Spitzer Era

    Draine, B. T., 2007, ApJ

    2,019 citations

  4. The Multiband Imaging Photometer for Spitzer (MIPS)

    Rieke, G. H., 2004, ApJS

    1,934 citations

  5. Star Formation in AEGIS Field Galaxies since z=1.1: The Dominance of Gradually Declining Star Formation, and the Main Sequence of Star-forming Galaxies

    Noeske, K. G., 2007, ApJ

    1,884 citations

  6. The Star Formation Efficiency in Nearby Galaxies: Measuring Where Gas Forms Stars Effectively

    Leroy, Adam K., 2008, AJ

    1,829 citations

  7. Evolutionary population synthesis: models, analysis of the ingredients and application to high-z galaxies

    Maraston, Claudia, 2005, MNRAS

    1,804 citations

  8. The Star Formation Law in Nearby Galaxies on Sub-Kpc Scales

    Bigiel, F., 2008, AJ

    1,717 citations

  9. The Great Observatories Origins Deep Survey: Initial Results from Optical and Near-Infrared Imaging

    Giavalisco, M., 2004, ApJ

    1,666 citations

  10. The reversal of the star formation-density relation in the distant universe

    Elbaz, D., 2007, A&A

    1,513 citations

  11. Multiwavelength Study of Massive Galaxies at z~2. I. Star Formation and Galaxy Growth

    Daddi, E., 2007, ApJ

    1,509 citations

  12. Evolution of asymptotic giant branch stars. II. Optical to far-infrared isochrones with improved TP-AGB models

    Marigo, P., 2008, A&A

    1,496 citations

  13. The Infrared Spectrograph (IRS) on the Spitzer Space Telescope

    Houck, J. R., 2004, ApJS

    1,490 citations

  14. The Spitzer c2d Legacy Results: Star-Formation Rates and Efficiencies; Evolution and Lifetimes

    Evans, Neal J., II, 2009, ApJS

    1,485 citations

  15. Spectral Energy Distributions and Multiwavelength Selection of Type 1 Quasars

    Richards, Gordon T., 2006, ApJS

    1,213 citations

  16. A simple model to interpret the ultraviolet, optical and infrared emission from galaxies

    da Cunha, Elisabete, 2008, MNRAS

    1,192 citations

  17. Cosmos Photometric Redshifts with 30-Bands for 2-deg²

    Ilbert, O., 2009, ApJ

    1,182 citations

  18. The COSMOS2015 Catalog: Exploring the 1 < z < 6 Universe with Half a Million Galaxies

    Laigle, C., 2016, ApJS

    1,093 citations

  19. Gravity and limb-darkening coefficients for the Kepler, CoRoT, Spitzer, uvby, UBVRIJHK, and Sloan photometric systems

    Claret, A., 2011, A&A

    1,071 citations

  20. GOODS-Herschel: an infrared main sequence for star-forming galaxies

    Elbaz, D., 2011, A&A

    1,066 citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for peer-reviewed articles naming SIRTF in the title, abstract or keywords; standard filters drop articles that are not peer-reviewed and magazine pieces. SciX is ADS’s current interface.

(((=abs:Spitzer NOT =abs:("Spitzer value" OR "Spitzer values" OR "Spitzer resistivity" OR "Spitzer conductivity" OR "Spitzer conduction" OR "Spitzer conductive" OR "Spitzer thermal conduction" OR "Spitzer thermal conductivity" OR "Spitzer heat" OR "Spitzer Harm" OR "Spitzer Braginskii" OR "Spitzer-like" OR "Spitzer viscosity" OR "Spitzer instability" OR "Spitzer sheets" OR "Lyman Spitzer" OR "Spitzer Fellow" OR "Spitzer rate" OR "Spitzer diffusion")) OR =abs:"Infrared Array Camera" OR =abs:"GLIMPSE Survey" OR abs:"GOODS Survey" OR abs:"SWIRE Survey" OR abs:"SINGS Survey" OR abs:"SIMPLE Survey" OR abs:"SCOSMOS Survey" OR abs:"SEDS Survey") AND collection:astronomy) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2004-01 TO 2040-01] AND NOT bibstem:("A&R" OR "AIASJ" OR "AeAm" OR "AirSp" OR "AsNow" OR "AsUAI" OR "AvWST" OR "C&E" OR "C&T" OR "CAPJ" OR "E&S" OR "ENews" OR "IrAJ" OR "JCos" OR "JRASC" OR "LAstr" OR "MNSSA" OR "Met" OR "NewSc" OR "Orion" OR "PhT" OR "PhTea" OR "PhuZ" OR "PhyOJ" OR "PhyW" OR "PlR" OR "SciAm" OR "SpFl" OR "ZemVs")

Open in SciX

Removed after review (7)

  1. CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey Hubble survey design paper for CANDELS; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖
  2. CANDELS: The Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep Extragalactic Legacy Survey—The Hubble Space Telescope Observations, Imaging Data Products, and Mosaics Hubble data products for the CANDELS survey; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖
  3. K-Corrections and Filter Transformations in the Ultraviolet, Optical, and Near-Infrared Galaxy K-correction method using other surveys' data; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖
  4. The Evolution of the Galaxy Rest-frame Ultraviolet Luminosity Function over the First Two Billion Years Galaxy luminosity functions from Hubble imaging; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖
  5. Metallicities of 0.3<z<1.0 Galaxies in the GOODS-North Field Keck spectroscopy of galaxies in the GOODS-North field; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖
  6. Discovery of optically faint obscured quasars with Virtual Observatory tools X-ray and optical search for obscured quasars; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖
  7. Evolution of the Gas Mass Fraction of Progenitors to Today’s Massive Galaxies: ALMA Observations in the CANDELS GOODS-S Field ALMA observations of galaxies in the GOODS-South field; does not mention Spitzer. Decision 🤖