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Topic · Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations

Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations is a research topic within Astronomy and Astrophysics. Science Explorer counts 36k research works in it since 1950. 9.9% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

This cluster of papers focuses on various aspects of black hole astrophysics, including X-ray astronomy, accretion disks, event horizon imaging, gravitational lensing, stellar orbits around black holes, magnetic fields in black hole systems, relativistic jets, and X-ray spectroscopy. The research covers observations and theoretical models related to supermassive black holes at the centers of galaxies, as well as stellar-mass black holes.

  • Black Holes
  • X-Ray Astronomy
  • Accretion Disks
  • Event Horizon Telescope
  • Galactic Center
  • Gravitational Lensing
  • Stellar Orbits
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Relativistic Jets
  • X-Ray Spectroscopy
Research works
36k
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
3.6k
per year above
Top-10% rate
9.9%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Growth, 2018-21 → 2022-25
-5%
the tick is no change
Largest producer
United States
26% of the 10 largest, 2022-now
Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations

Which countries lead Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations research?

By volume, the United States and China publish the most (1.1k and 893 works in 2022-now).

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 United States 1.1k works
  2. 2 China 893 works
  3. 3 India 356 works
  4. 4 Italy 336 works
  5. 5 Germany 281 works
  6. 6 United Kingdom 270 works
  7. 7 Japan 252 works
  8. 8 France 226 works
  9. 9 Russia 198 works
  10. 10 Spain 145 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 States: 26.4%China: 22.2%India: 8.9%Italy: 8.4%6 others listed: 34.2%26%largest
United States1,059 · 26.4%China893 · 22.2%India356 · 8.9%Italy336 · 8.4%6 others listed1,373 · 34.2%

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

Which institutions lead Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations research?

By volume in 2022-now, Chinese Academy of Sciences publishes the most Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations research, followed by National Institute for Astrophysics and Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique.

By volume, 2022-now

  1. 1 Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 216 works
  2. 2 National Institute for AstrophysicsItaly 142 works
  3. 3 Centre National de la Recherche ScientifiqueFrance 110 works
  4. 4 Max Planck SocietyGermany 108 works
  5. 5 Russian Academy of SciencesRussia 106 works
  6. 6 Harvard UniversityUnited States 60 works
  7. 7 University of Chinese Academy of SciencesChina 48 works
  8. 8 California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 47 works
  9. 9 National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationUnited States 37 works
  10. 10 University of CambridgeUnited Kingdom 32 works

Who are the leading researchers in Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations?

The most-cited researchers publishing on Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations include Kai You Wang, G. Mitselmakher and Hua Zhang.

  1. 1 Kai You Wang China 224k citations
  2. 2 G. Mitselmakher France 223k citations
  3. 3 Hua Zhang Singapore 196k citations
  4. 4 Ian W Harry Germany 189k citations
  5. 5 R. W. L. Jones United Kingdom 189k citations
  6. 6 Douglas Scott Canada 172k citations
  7. 7 Sanjit Mitra India 167k citations
  8. 8 Xin Wu France 165k citations
  9. 9 Eduardo Ros United Kingdom 165k citations
  10. 10 B. S. Acharya France 164k 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 Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations?

The most cited paper in Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations is "Electromagnetic extraction of energy from Kerr black holes" (Roger D. Blandford, R. L. Znajek, 1977), with 5,162 citations. Next come "A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies" (4,479) and "First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole" (4,300).

Most cited papers
#PaperReleasedCitations
1 Electromagnetic extraction of energy from Kerr black holes Roger D. Blandford, R. L. Znajek · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Jul 1977 5,162
2 A Fundamental Relation between Supermassive Black Holes and Their Host Galaxies Laura Ferrarese, David R. Merritt · The Astrophysical Journal Open access 10 Aug 2000 4,479
3 First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole Kazunori Akiyama et al. · The Astrophysical Journal Letters Open access348 authors 9 Apr 2019 4,300
4 Coevolution (Or Not) of Supermassive Black Holes and Host Galaxies John Kormendy, Luis C. Ho · Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics ReviewOpen access 18 Aug 2013 4,233
5 Hydromagnetic flows from accretion discs and the production of radio jets Roger D. Blandford, David G. Payne · Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Open access Aug 1982 4,125
All 99 most cited papers, with filters and sorting

Where is Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations research done?

The largest centres of Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations research in 2022-now are Beijing (China), Moscow (Russia), Paris (France) and Rome (Italy). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Garching.

Largest cities, 2022-now

  1. 1 BeijingChina 271 works
  2. 2 MoscowRussia 115 works
  3. 3 ParisFrance 107 works
  4. 4 RomeItaly 97 works
  5. 5 CambridgeUnited States 85 works
  6. 6 TashkentUzbekistan 81 works
  7. 7 TokyoJapan 79 works
  8. 8 ShanghaiChina 76 works
  9. 9 BengaluruIndia 60 works
  10. 10 GarchingGermany 55 works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. GarchingDE · 55.2 works101×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

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

See Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations on the map

Where is the best place to study Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations?

Among universities, judged by research, Princeton University, Eastern Mediterranean University and Zhejiang Normal University score highest, combining citation excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 21.89%fractional works in this field (log) →share of work in the world top 10% →Zhejiang Normal Univ…Eastern Mediterranea…Princeton UniversityCalifornia Institute…
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.

Citation 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.
#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Princeton UniversityUnited States 62.221.4%13.7×29 -3.5%
2Eastern Mediterranean UniversityCyprus 62.224.5%60.4×18 +72.8%
3Zhejiang Normal UniversityChina 59.534.5%7.5×10 -
4California Institute of TechnologyUnited States 58.616.5%27.5×47 -25.0%
5National University of UzbekistanUzbekistan 54.716.4%26.3×19 +272.4%
6Harvard UniversityUnited States 54.612.5%4.0×60 -22.6%
7New Uzbekistan UniversityUzbekistan 53.923.0%211.8×10 -
8China West Normal UniversityChina 53.631.6%22.2×12 +69.3%
9University of Milano-BicoccaItaly 52.015.7%12.7×17 +31.6%
10University of ArizonaUnited States 51.222.8%6.7×21 -1.3%

Universities only. The score blends citation 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 Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations, country by country

Is Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations research growing?

Output in 2022-2025 was 5% lower than in 2018-2021, peaking in 2016.

still counting19801990200020102020
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 Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations as a percentage of every work published that year, 0.020% in 2024.

still counting0.025%0.050%0.075%Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations0.018% in 202519801990200020102020

Fractional works of Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations 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.

still counting5%10%15%Astrophysical Phenomena and Observations10.1% in 2025200020102020

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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