Planetary Science

Stardust / Stardust NExT

Sample Return · Competed · PI-led · Launched on February 7, 1999 · Completed · LCC: $219M/$464M (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 Stardust, papers published February 1, 2004 to April 1, 2013. Methods LifetimeLifetimeEvery tracked publication to date, with every citation to date. For Stardust, papers published from 2003 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. Methods339
CitationsCitations: every citation these publications have drawn to date. Older missions have had longer to collect them. Methods15,340
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. Methods61
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. Methods109
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. Methods2.5
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. Methods79
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. Methods369

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 (339)

All publications CSV · JSON

  1. Comet 81P/Wild 2 Under a Microscope

    Brownlee, Don, 2006, Sci

    823 lifetime citations

  2. Mineralogy and Petrology of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Nucleus Samples

    Zolensky, Michael E., 2006, Sci

    625 lifetime citations

  3. Organics Captured from Comet 81P/Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft

    Sandford, Scott A., 2006, Sci

    471 lifetime citations

  4. Prebiotic chemicals--amino acid and phosphorus--in the coma of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

    Altwegg, K., 2016, SciA

    456 lifetime citations

  5. Cometary glycine detected in samples returned by Stardust

    Elsila, J. E., 2009, M&PS

    410 lifetime citations

  6. Isotopic Compositions of Cometary Matter Returned by Stardust

    McKeegan, Kevin D., 2006, Sci

    363 lifetime citations

  7. Impact Features on Stardust: Implications for Comet 81P/Wild 2 Dust

    HÖrz, Friedrich, 2006, Sci

    302 lifetime citations

  8. Surface of Young Jupiter Family Comet 81 P/Wild 2: View from the Stardust Spacecraft

    Brownlee, Donald E., 2004, Sci

    270 lifetime citations

  9. Chondrulelike Objects in Short-Period Comet 81P/Wild 2

    Nakamura, Tomoki, 2008, Sci

    252 lifetime citations

  10. Outward Transport of High-Temperature Materials Around the Midplane of the Solar Nebula

    Ciesla, Fred J., 2007, Sci

    244 lifetime citations

  11. Comparison of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Dust with Interplanetary Dust from Comets

    Ishii, Hope A., 2008, Sci

    204 lifetime citations

  12. Ultra-primitive interplanetary dust particles from the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup dust stream collection

    Busemann, Henner, 2009, E&PSL

    201 lifetime citations

  13. Cosmochemistry Special Feature: Establishing a molecular relationship between chondritic and cometary organic solids

    Cody, George D., 2011, PNAS

    189 lifetime citations

  14. Elemental Compositions of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Samples Collected by Stardust

    Flynn, George J., 2006, Sci

    183 lifetime citations

  15. The primordial nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

    Davidsson, B. J. R., 2016, A&A

    172 lifetime citations

  16. Extreme Deuterium Excesses in Ultracarbonaceous Micrometeorites from Central Antarctic Snow

    Duprat, J., 2010, Sci

    163 lifetime citations

  17. Evidence for interstellar origin of seven dust particles collected by the Stardust spacecraft

    Westphal, Andrew J., 2014, Sci

    162 lifetime citations

  18. Dynamical Model for the Zodiacal Cloud and Sporadic Meteors

    Nesvorný, David, 2011, ApJ

    154 lifetime citations

  19. The Stardust Mission: Analyzing Samples from the Edge of the Solar System

    Brownlee, Don, 2014, AREPS

    152 lifetime citations

  20. Quantitative organic and light-element analysis of comet 81P/Wild 2 particles using C-, N-, and O-μ-XANES

    Cody, G. D., 2008, M&PS

    149 lifetime citations

How we found these papers

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

((((=abs:"Stardust" AND (abs:"Wild 2" OR abs:"Tempel 1" OR =abs:"aerogel" OR abs:"sample return" OR abs:"cometary coma" OR abs:"Dust Flux Monitor" OR abs:"CIDA")) OR (=abs:"Stardust-NExT" OR =title:"Stardust-NExT")) OR =abs:"Stardust spacecraft" OR (=abs:"Wild 2" AND abs:comet AND (abs:sample OR =abs:aerogel OR (abs:organic AND abs:solid) OR (abs:particle AND abs:mineral)))) AND NOT title:("interstellar medium" OR "ISM" OR "star formation" OR "reddening" OR "supernova") NOT title:("David Bowie" OR "Ziggy" OR "movie" OR "entertainment")) AND property:refereed AND doctype:article AND pubdate:[2004-02 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 (2)

  1. Assignment of quinone derivatives as the main compound class composing`interstellar' grains based on both polarity ions detected by the`Cometary and Interstellar Dust Analyser'(CIDA) onboard the spacecraft STARDUST Interstellar dust composition from cruise mass spectra taken by Stardust's dust analyser. Decision 🤖
  2. Phase curve and albedo of asteroid 5535 Annefrank Asteroid Annefrank phase curve and albedo from Stardust's 2002 flyby images. Decision 🤖

Removed after review (4)

  1. The proposed Caroline ESA M3 mission to a Main Belt Comet Overview of the proposed Caroline comet sample-return mission, which names Stardust only as design heritage. Decision 🤖
  2. The Magnesium Isotope Composition of Samples Returned from Asteroid Ryugu Ryugu sample study that uses "stardust" to mean presolar grains, not the Stardust mission. Decision 🤖
  3. Gradual Destruction of Refractory Stardust in Alkali Brines on Asteroid Bennu Bennu sample study that uses "stardust" to mean presolar grains, not the Stardust mission. Decision 🤖
  4. Comet Wild-2 samples are now available for general allocation and analysis Duplicate record of 2006M&PS...41.1419Z (same paper). Decision 👨