Planetary Science

Dawn

425 tracked publications and 13,482 citations from 2011–2026. Launched 2007. Life-cycle cost: $883M in 2025 dollars. Active Mission Window August 1, 2011 to November 1, 2020: 337 publications, 61 top-10% credit.

Orbiter · h-index 59 · 27 papers with 100+ citations · prime mission ended 2016

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 August 1, 2011 to November 1, 2020
Tracked publicationsTracked publications: peer-reviewed research papers we found for the mission. The list may not be complete. Methods337
CitationsCitations received by the tracked publications in the selected scope. The two windowed scopes count each paper’s citations only within its citation window. Methods6,462
Mean citations per publicationMean citations: total citations divided by tracked publications in the selected scope. One blockbuster paper can lift it. Methods19
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. Methods12
Uncited publicationsUncited publications: papers with no citations in the selected scope. Methods11 (3.3%)
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. Methods61 · 5.6% 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. Methods6.0 · 5.5% 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. Methods59
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. Methods93
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. Methods3.7
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. Methods36
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. Methods354

Tracked publications

  1. Dawn at Vesta: Testing the Protoplanetary Paradigm

    Russell, C. T., 2012, Sci

    455 citations

  2. The Dawn Framing Camera

    Sierks, H., 2011, SSRv

    280 citations

  3. Spectroscopic Characterization of Mineralogy and Its Diversity Across Vesta

    De Sanctis, M. C., 2012, Sci

    257 citations

  4. Elemental Mapping by Dawn Reveals Exogenic H in Vesta’s Regolith

    Prettyman, Thomas H., 2012, Sci

    219 citations

  5. The Violent Collisional History of Asteroid 4 Vesta

    Marchi, S., 2012, Sci

    217 citations

  6. Vesta’s Shape and Morphology

    Jaumann, R., 2012, Sci

    212 citations

  7. The Dawn Mission to Vesta and Ceres

    Russell, C. T., 2011, SSRv

    210 citations

  8. The Geologically Recent Giant Impact Basins at Vesta’s South Pole

    Schenk, Paul, 2012, Sci

    185 citations

  9. Dawn arrives at Ceres: Exploration of a small, volatile-rich world

    Russell, C. T., 2016, Sci

    185 citations

  10. Dawn; the Vesta-HED connection; and the geologic context for eucrites, diogenites, and howardites

    McSween, Harry Y., 2013, M&PS

    182 citations

  11. A partially differentiated interior for (1) Ceres deduced from its gravity field and shape

    Park, R. S., 2016, Natur

    182 citations

  12. Dawn's Gamma Ray and Neutron Detector

    Prettyman, Thomas H., 2011, SSRv

    175 citations

  13. Color and Albedo Heterogeneity of Vesta from Dawn

    Reddy, Vishnu, 2012, Sci

    165 citations

  14. Delivery of dark material to Vesta via carbonaceous chondritic impacts

    Reddy, Vishnu, 2012, Icar

    162 citations

  15. Extensive water ice within Ceres’ aqueously altered regolith: Evidence from nuclear spectroscopy

    Prettyman, T. H., 2017, Sci

    160 citations

  16. Localized aliphatic organic material on the surface of Ceres

    De Sanctis, M. C., 2017, Sci

    152 citations

  17. Distribution of phyllosilicates on the surface of Ceres

    Ammannito, E., 2016, Sci

    147 citations

  18. The origin of eucrites, diogenites, and olivine diogenites: Magma ocean crystallization and shallow magma chamber processes on Vesta

    Mandler, Ben E., 2013, M&PS

    138 citations

  19. Cryovolcanism on Ceres

    Ruesch, O., 2016, Sci

    136 citations

  20. Cratering on Ceres: Implications for its crust and evolution

    Hiesinger, H., 2016, Sci

    124 citations

How we found these papers

We searched NASA’s Astrophysics Data System (ADS) for peer-reviewed articles naming Dawn 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:"Dawn mission" OR =abs:"Dawn spacecraft" OR ((=abs:Dawn OR abs:VIR) AND (abs:Vesta OR abs:Ceres)))) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2011-08 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

Added after review (2)

  1. The Dawn Ion Propulsion System Engineering description of Dawn's ion propulsion system. Decision 🤖
  2. Dawn Science Planning, Operations and Archiving Describes Dawn's science planning, operations and data archiving. Decision 🤖

Removed after review (7)

  1. 2011SSRv..163....1R Foreword to a journal special issue; not a research paper. Decision 🤖
  2. Vesta and Ceres: Crossing the History of the Solar System Review of Solar System history; mentions Dawn only as a future source of data. Decision 🤖
  3. The Origin and Evolution of the Asteroid Belt—Implications for Vesta and Ceres Review of asteroid belt evolution; mentions Dawn only as a future source of data. Decision 🤖
  4. Origin, Internal Structure and Evolution of 4 Vesta Review of Vesta's interior from meteorites; mentions Dawn only as a future source of data. Decision 🤖
  5. The Surface Composition of Ceres Review of earlier observations of Ceres' surface; uses no Dawn data. Decision 🤖
  6. HED Meteorites and Their Relationship to the Geology of Vesta and the Dawn Mission Review of HED meteorites; mentions Dawn only as a future user of them. Decision 🤖
  7. The Education and Public Outreach Program for NASA's Dawn Mission Describes Dawn's education and public outreach program; not a research paper. Decision 🤖