Planetary Science

Near-Earth Object Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (NEOWISE)

Survey Observatory · Directed · PI-led · Launched on December 14, 2009 · Completed · LCC: $310M/$484M (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 NEOWISE, papers published January 1, 2014 to January 1, 2024. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For NEOWISE, papers published from 2011 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. Methods109
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods4,509
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. Methods33
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. Methods65
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. Methods2.1
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. Methods15
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. Methods243

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 (109)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. Initial Performance of the NEOWISE Reactivation Mission

    Mainzer, A., 2014, ApJ

    815 lifetime citations

  2. Main Belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE. I. Preliminary Albedos and Diameters

    Masiero, Joseph R., 2011, ApJ

    405 lifetime citations

  3. NEOWISE Observations of Near-Earth Objects: Preliminary Results

    Mainzer, A., 2011, ApJ

    393 lifetime citations

  4. NEOWISE Studies of Spectrophotometrically Classified Asteroids: Preliminary Results

    Mainzer, A., 2011, ApJ

    136 lifetime citations

  5. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Jovian Trojans: Preliminary Results

    Grav, T., 2011, ApJ

    119 lifetime citations

  6. Main-belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE: Near-infrared Albedos

    Masiero, Joseph R., 2014, ApJ

    116 lifetime citations

  7. Asteroid Family Identification Using the Hierarchical Clustering Method and WISE/NEOWISE Physical Properties

    Masiero, Joseph R., 2013, ApJ

    111 lifetime citations

  8. Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects in the Thermal Infrared: Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE Observations

    Bauer, James M., 2013, ApJ

    108 lifetime citations

  9. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Jovian Trojan Population: Taxonomy

    Grav, T., 2012, ApJ

    103 lifetime citations

  10. Preliminary Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE 3-Band Cryogenic and Post-cryogenic Observations of Main Belt Asteroids

    Masiero, Joseph R., 2012, ApJ

    99 lifetime citations

  11. NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year One: Preliminary Asteroid Diameters and Albedos

    Nugent, C. R., 2015, ApJ

    84 lifetime citations

  12. Thermal Model Calibration for Minor Planets Observed with Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer/NEOWISE

    Mainzer, A., 2011, ApJ

    83 lifetime citations

  13. NEOWISE Reactivation Mission Year Two: Asteroid Diameters and Albedos

    Nugent, C. R., 2016, AJ

    80 lifetime citations

  14. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Hilda Population: Preliminary Results

    Grav, T., 2012, ApJ

    79 lifetime citations

  15. The Population of Tiny Near-Earth Objects Observed by NEOWISE

    Mainzer, A., 2014, ApJ

    71 lifetime citations

  16. The NEOWISE-Discovered Comet Population and the CO + CO₂ Production Rates

    Bauer, James M., 2015, ApJ

    66 lifetime citations

  17. Debiasing the NEOWISE Cryogenic Mission Comet Populations

    Bauer, James M., 2017, AJ

    62 lifetime citations

  18. The population of near-earth asteroids revisited and updated

    Harris, Alan W., 2021, Icar

    59 lifetime citations

  19. Physical Parameters of Asteroids Estimated from the WISE 3-Band Data and NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic Survey

    Mainzer, A., 2012, ApJ

    56 lifetime citations

  20. Characterizing Subpopulations within the near-Earth Objects with NEOWISE: Preliminary Results

    Mainzer, A., 2012, ApJ

    53 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

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

((((((abs:NEOWISE AND (abs:infrared OR abs:survey OR abs:telescope OR abs:mission OR abs:photometry OR abs:asteroid OR abs:data OR abs:variability OR abs:WISE)) AND NOT (=abs:"C 2020 F3 NEOWISE" OR =abs:"comet NEOWISE" OR =abs:"C 2014 N3 NEOWISE")) OR ((abs:NEOWISE AND (abs:infrared OR abs:survey OR abs:telescope OR abs:mission OR abs:photometry OR abs:asteroid OR abs:data OR abs:variability OR abs:WISE)) AND (=abs:"NEOWISE data" OR =abs:"NEOWISE observations" OR =abs:"NEOWISE mission" OR =abs:"NEOWISE survey" OR =abs:"NEOWISE images" OR =abs:"NEOWISE space telescope" OR =abs:"NEOWISE program" OR =abs:"Near Earth Object program of the Wide Field Infrared Survey Explorer"))) AND (abs:asteroid OR abs:comet OR =abs:NEOs OR =abs:"near-Earth objects" OR =abs:"minor planet" OR =abs:"minor planets" OR =abs:"small body" OR =abs:"small bodies" OR abs:trojan OR =abs:"planetary defense" OR =abs:"Kuiper belt" OR =abs:"trans-Neptunian" OR abs:Neptune OR abs:regolith OR =abs:"Planet Nine") AND NOT (abs:AGN OR abs:quasar OR abs:YSO OR abs:protostar OR abs:"tidal disruption event" OR abs:supernova OR abs:"brown dwarf" OR abs:"white dwarf" OR abs:maser OR abs:"star-forming" OR abs:"black hole")) AND collection:astronomy)) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2014-01 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")

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Added after review (23)

  1. Main Belt Asteroids with WISE/NEOWISE. I. Preliminary Albedos and Diameters Early NEOWISE results: preliminary diameters and albedos of main-belt asteroids. Decision 🤖
  2. NEOWISE Observations of Near-Earth Objects: Preliminary Results Early NEOWISE results: preliminary near-Earth object population estimates. Decision 🤖
  3. NEOWISE Studies of Spectrophotometrically Classified Asteroids: Preliminary Results Early NEOWISE results: albedos of spectrophotometrically classified asteroids. Decision 🤖
  4. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Jovian Trojans: Preliminary Results Early NEOWISE results: albedos and sizes of Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Decision 🤖
  5. Asteroid Family Identification Using the Hierarchical Clustering Method and WISE/NEOWISE Physical Properties Asteroid family identification using early NEOWISE albedos. Decision 🤖
  6. Centaurs and Scattered Disk Objects in the Thermal Infrared: Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE Observations Early NEOWISE thermal observations of Centaurs and scattered disk objects. Decision 🤖
  7. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Jovian Trojan Population: Taxonomy Taxonomy of Jupiter Trojans from early NEOWISE infrared albedos. Decision 🤖
  8. Preliminary Analysis of WISE/NEOWISE 3-Band Cryogenic and Post-cryogenic Observations of Main Belt Asteroids Early NEOWISE diameters and albedos from the cryogenic and post-cryogenic surveys. Decision 🤖
  9. Thermal Model Calibration for Minor Planets Observed with Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer/NEOWISE Thermal model calibration for asteroids using early NEOWISE observations. Decision 🤖
  10. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of the Hilda Population: Preliminary Results Early NEOWISE results: albedos and taxonomy of Hilda asteroids. Decision 🤖
  11. Physical Parameters of Asteroids Estimated from the WISE 3-Band Data and NEOWISE Post-Cryogenic Survey Early NEOWISE physical parameters of near-Earth objects from the post-cryogenic survey. Decision 🤖
  12. Characterizing Subpopulations within the near-Earth Objects with NEOWISE: Preliminary Results Early NEOWISE results: near-Earth object subpopulations and hazardous asteroid numbers. Decision 🤖
  13. Revising the Age for the Baptistina Asteroid Family Using WISE/NEOWISE Data Baptistina asteroid family age revised with early NEOWISE data. Decision 🤖
  14. NEOWISE Studies of Asteroids with Sloan Photometry: Preliminary Results Early NEOWISE albedos of asteroids with Sloan photometry. Decision 🤖
  15. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of Comet 103P/Hartley 2 Early NEOWISE observations of comet 103P/Hartley 2. Decision 🤖
  16. The strength and detectability of the YORP effect in near-Earth asteroids: a statistical approach YORP effect study of near-Earth asteroids using early NEOWISE diameters. Decision 🤖
  17. Thermal Model Calibration for Minor Planets Observed with WISE/NEOWISE: Comparison with Infrared Astronomical Satellite Early NEOWISE minor-planet diameters compared with IRAS results. Decision 🤖
  18. WISE/NEOWISE Observations of Active Bodies in the Main Belt Early NEOWISE observations of active main-belt objects. Decision 🤖
  19. WISE/NEOWISE Preliminary Analysis and Highlights of the 67p/Churyumov-Gerasimenko near Nucleus Environs Early NEOWISE observations of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Decision 🤖
  20. An analysis of the Hygiea asteroid family orbital region Hygiea asteroid family study using early NEOWISE albedos. Decision 🤖
  21. A Revised Asteroid Polarization-Albedo Relationship Using WISE/NEOWISE Data Asteroid polarization-albedo relation revised with early NEOWISE albedos. Decision 🤖
  22. The Yarkovsky Drift's Influence on NEAs: Trends and Predictions with NEOWISE Measurements Yarkovsky drift predictions for near-Earth asteroids from early NEOWISE measurements. Decision 🤖
  23. High-inclination Atens are Indeed Rare Orbital models of Aten asteroids tested against early NEOWISE detections. Decision 🤖