Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Astronomy and Astrophysical Research is a research topic within Instrumentation. Science Explorer counts 57k research works in it since 1950. 9.8% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers covers advancements in astronomical instrumentation, spectroscopy, and data reduction software, focusing on topics such as telescope design, construction, and performance, fiber optics for integral field units and multi-object spectroscopy, as well as the development of data reduction software for processing astronomical data. The cluster also includes discussions on wide-field spectroscopy, optical fibers at cryogenic temperatures, and the design and performance of various spectrographs for ground-based telescopes.

Astronomical Instrumentation
Spectrograph
Telescope
Fiber Optics
Data Reduction Software
Integral Field Unit
Multi-Object Spectroscopy
Optical Fibres
Wide-Field Spectroscopy
Observatory

Research works: 57k
In the world top 10%: 5.6k
Top-10% rate: 9.8%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25: -23%
Largest producer: United States

Astronomy and Astrophysical Research

Which countries lead Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (2.5k and 616 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

1 United States 2.5k works
2 China 616 works
3 France 553 works
4 United Kingdom 494 works
5 Italy 443 works
6 Germany 408 works
7 Spain 303 works
8 Australia 256 works
9 India 241 works
10 Japan 219 works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

United States2,463 · 41.1%China616 · 10.3%France553 · 9.2%United Kingdom494 · 8.2%6 others listed1,871 · 31.2%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research?

By volume in 2022-now, Harvard University publishes the most Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research, followed by National Institute for Astrophysics and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

1 Harvard UniversityUnited States 699 works
2 National Institute for AstrophysicsItaly 265 works
3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 265 works
4 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 212 works
5 Max Planck SocietyGermany 134 works
6 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 128 works
7 California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 100 works
8 Universidad de La LagunaSpain 91 works
9 University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States 81 works
10 Consejo Superior de Investigaciones CientíficasSpain 62 works

Who are the leading researchers in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Astronomy and Astrophysical Research include Graeme J. Hankey, Martin McKee and Narayanaswamy Venketasubramanian.

1 Graeme J. Hankey Australia 316k citations
2 Martin McKee United Kingdom 270k citations
3 Narayanaswamy Venketasubramanian Singapore 252k citations
4 P. Jackson France 230k citations
5 Peter John Barnes United Kingdom 225k citations
6 David John Hunter Australia 211k citations
7 L. Li France 211k citations
8 Ian W Harry Germany 189k citations

Ranked by citations received across their whole record, among researchers with at least three works on this topic.

What are the most cited papers in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research?

The most cited paper in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research is "The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS)" (Michael F. Skrutskie et al., 2006), with 12,280 citations. Next come "Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003" (10,695) and "A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering" (9,998).

Most cited papers
#	Paper	Released	Citations
1	The Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS) Michael F. Skrutskie et al. · The Astronomical Journal Open access	24 Jan 2006	12,280
2	Stellar population synthesis at the resolution of 2003 Gustavo A. Bruzual, Stéphane Charlot · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Open access	22 Sep 2003	10,695
3	A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering Julio F. Navarro, Carlos S. Frenk, Simon D. M. White · The Astrophysical Journal Open access	Dec 1997	9,998
4	Galactic Stellar and Substellar Initial Mass Function Gilles Chabrier · Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific Open access	Jul 2003	9,158
5	THE WIDE-FIELD INFRARED SURVEY EXPLORER (WISE): MISSION DESCRIPTION AND INITIAL ON-ORBIT PERFORMANCE EDWARD L. WRIGHT et al. · The Astronomical Journal Open access	9 Nov 2010	8,163

All 98 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research done?

The largest centres of Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research in 2022-now are Cambridge (United States), Beijing (China), Paris (France) and Pasadena (United States). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Kežmarok and Nizhniy Arkhyz.

Largest cities, 2022-now

1 CambridgeUnited States 732 works
2 BeijingChina 268 works
3 ParisFrance 256 works
4 PasadenaUnited States 122 works
5 RomeItaly 116 works
6 MoscowRussia 110 works
7 HeidelbergGermany 102 works
8 TucsonUnited States 95 works
9 GarchingGermany 92 works
10 BaltimoreUnited States 82 works

Where it is the local speciality

KežmarokSK · 24.9 works301×
Nizhniy ArkhyzRU · 32.3 works276×

← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research than the world average.

See Astronomy and Astrophysical Research on the map

Where is the best place to study Astronomy and Astrophysical Research?

Among universities, judged by research, Technical University of Denmark, Harvard University and Université Bourgogne Franche-Comté score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the first ten of the table below, at the default weights. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

Excellenceshare of its work in the world top 10%, 2022-now and all time averaged

40%

Specialisationhow much of its work is in this field, counted up to 10× the world share

10%

Sizeits output in this field, on a log scale

30%

Growthoutput growth, counted from -20% to +20%

10%

Internationalshare of its work with a co-author abroad

10%

Each slider sets a weight; the share it gets of the score is beside it.

#	University	Score	Top 10%	Specialisation	Works	Growth
1	Technical University of DenmarkDenmark	62.7	36.3%	3.3×	11	+50.9%
2	Harvard UniversityUnited States	61.2	1.9%	32.5×	699	+92.0%
3	Université Bourgogne Franche-ComtéFrance	53.6	24.3%	26.8×	18	-40.3%
4	Scuola Normale SuperioreItaly	53.6	25.9%	31.4×	12	+84.6%
5	Swinburne University of TechnologyAustralia	52.1	23.1%	14.8×	29	+2.7%
6	Princeton UniversityUnited States	49.2	21.8%	10.4×	31	-44.1%
7	University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom	48.7	20.2%	5.7×	46	-24.5%
8	University of EdinburghUnited Kingdom	48.1	18.1%	4.6×	27	+0.1%
9	University of Massachusetts AmherstUnited States	48.1	21.7%	4.9×	12	+17.7%
10	University of California, Santa CruzUnited States	46.4	18.8%	25.1×	31	-31.8%
11	California Institute of TechnologyUnited States	46.3	12.9%	41.0×	100	-38.1%
12	University of GenevaSwitzerland	46.1	18.8%	11.4×	32	-35.1%
13	University of CopenhagenDenmark	44.7	27.7%	3.1×	20	-18.5%
14	Stanford UniversityUnited States	44.5	17.5%	3.8×	38	-17.5%
15	Leiden UniversityNetherlands	44.0	12.1%	12.7×	47	-48.9%
16	University of OxfordUnited Kingdom	43.8	17.0%	3.6×	34	-11.8%
17	University of ArizonaUnited States	43.2	14.5%	12.5×	55	-25.6%
18	Massachusetts Institute of TechnologyUnited States	42.6	16.7%	6.2×	30	-22.8%
19	Durham UniversityUnited Kingdom	41.7	11.7%	14.3×	36	-23.0%
20	University of Milano-BicoccaItaly	41.7	19.8%	4.4×	8	+14.8%
21	University of PortsmouthUnited Kingdom	41.4	14.0%	12.7×	13	-1.4%
22	Heidelberg UniversityGermany	41.3	14.6%	7.8×	40	-21.4%
23	Universidad de La LagunaSpain	40.9	10.2%	65.3×	91	-32.0%
24	The University of Western AustraliaAustralia	40.5	14.4%	10.2×	29	-39.0%
25	Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenGermany	40.4	15.9%	4.8×	28	-31.1%
26	Weizmann Institute of ScienceIsrael	40.4	12.1%	9.6×	9	+9.6%
27	Sorbonne UniversitéFrance	40.2	15.2%	6.0×	28	-20.1%
28	Universitat Autònoma de BarcelonaSpain	40.0	15.3%	4.1×	18	+7.7%
29	University of California, BerkeleyUnited States	38.5	14.5%	4.2×	27	-42.9%
30	The University of Texas at AustinUnited States	38.4	17.4%	5.5×	31	-29.2%
31	University College LondonUnited Kingdom	38.4	18.7%	2.6×	28	-22.4%
32	University of GroningenNetherlands	38.1	19.5%	4.2×	20	-43.9%
33	Liverpool John Moores UniversityUnited Kingdom	38.0	15.5%	17.1×	17	-45.2%
34	University of TorontoCanada	37.5	15.1%	1.9×	26	-24.2%
35	Université Paris-SaclayFrance	37.5	13.6%	4.1×	18	-2.1%
36	University of FlorenceItaly	37.3	16.0%	2.9×	12	+15.4%
37	The University of SydneyAustralia	37.2	14.7%	4.3×	35	-18.6%
38	University of ManchesterUnited Kingdom	36.8	15.5%	3.2×	18	+1.5%
39	Johns Hopkins UniversityUnited States	36.5	16.8%	2.7×	28	-35.3%
40	University of ChicagoUnited States	36.0	14.0%	4.0×	23	-17.6%
41	University of North Carolina at Chapel HillUnited States	33.4	1.1%	6.7×	81	+4.1%
42	Beijing Normal UniversityChina	32.9	6.7%	4.3×	23	+20.8%
43	Université Paris Sciences et LettresFrance	32.8	6.8%	12.8×	33	-21.5%
44	University of MilanItaly	32.5	13.4%	2.0×	9	+108.2%
45	École Polytechnique Fédérale de LausanneSwitzerland	32.3	15.9%	4.2×	12	-21.0%
46	City University of New YorkUnited States	32.2	7.0%	2.5×	9	+73.0%
47	University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina	31.4	8.2%	4.2×	47	-9.9%
48	Yunnan UniversityChina	30.6	6.9%	5.1×	13	+81.8%
49	ETH ZurichSwitzerland	30.1	15.3%	1.8×	9	-54.4%
50	University of DelawareUnited States	30.0	2.2%	7.4×	14	+109.5%
51	Sapienza University of RomeItaly	29.0	12.1%	1.6×	12	+23.7%
52	University of ZurichSwitzerland	28.4	14.1%	1.9×	9	-23.8%
53	Shanghai Jiao Tong UniversityChina	28.0	8.8%	0.9×	17	+46.4%
54	KU LeuvenBelgium	25.8	9.7%	2.6×	17	-32.0%
55	Chalmers University of TechnologySweden	23.1	10.2%	5.4×	9	-38.9%

Universities only. The score blends excellence (40%), size (30%), specialisation (10%), growth (10%), international reach (10%), 2022-now; growth compares 2018-21 with 2022-25 and counts up to +20%, since a jump from a small base is mostly noise.

Every institution in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research, country by country

Is Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 23% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2026.

grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon: one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Its share of all research

Growing output can still be a shrinking share: all of science grows. This is Astronomy and Astrophysical Research as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.023% in 2024.

Fractional works of Astronomy and Astrophysical Research over all fractional works that year. How the balance of science has shifted.

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Year by year.

Of each year's works in it, the share that reached the world's 10% most cited for their field and year. A field is the world for its own topics, so there is no other line to hold it against.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

Discussion

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Which countries lead Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research?

By volume, 2022-now

How concentrated that is

Which institutions lead Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research?

By volume, 2022-now

Who are the leading researchers in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research?

What are the most cited papers in Astronomy and Astrophysical Research?

Where is Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research done?

Largest cities, 2022-now

Where it is the local speciality

Where is the best place to study Astronomy and Astrophysical Research?

Is Astronomy and Astrophysical Research research growing?

Its share of all research

How much of it reaches the world top 10%

Which topics inside it are moving

Related research

Discussion