Sci-Bytes> Hot Paper in Physics
Week of March 13, 2011
"Herschel Space Observatory: An ESI facility for far-infrared and submillimetre astronomy," by G.L. Pilbratt and 10 others, Astronomy & Astrophysics, 518: No. L1, July-August 2010.
[Authors' affiliations: ESA facilities in Noordwijk, The Netherlands; Madrid, Spain, and Darmstadt, Germany]
Abstract: "Herschel was launched on 14 May 2009, and is
now an operational ESA space observatory offering unprecedented
observational capabilities in the far-infrared and submillimetre spectral
range 55-671 µm. Herschel carries a 3.5 m diameter passively cooled
Cassegrain telescope, which is the largest of its kind and utilises a novel
silicon carbide technology. The science payload comprises three
instruments: two direct detection cameras/medium resolution spectrometers,
PACS and SPIRE, and a very high-resolution heterodyne spectrometer, HIFI,
whose focal plane units are housed inside a superfluid helium cryostat.
Herschel is an observatory facility operated in partnership among ESA, the
instrument consortia, and NASA. The mission lifetime is determined by the
cryostat hold time. Nominally approximately 20 000 h will be available for
astronomy, 32% is guaranteed time and the remainder is open to the
worldwide general astronomical community through a standard competitive
proposal procedure."
This 2010 report, which opens the July/August 2010 issue of Astronomy
& Astrophysics, was cited 191 times in current
journal articles indexed by Clarivate during November/December 2010.
Much of this initial surge of citations, it must be noted, derives from the
same issue of the journal, in which upwards of 150 papers discuss the first
science highlights of the Herschel mission, with virtually all the papers
citing this introductory report. Nevertheless, Herschel clearly represents
an undertaking that will be a bountiful source of astronomical knowledge
(not to mention citations) in the years ahead. Prior to the most recent
bimonthly count, citations to the paper have accrued as follows:
September-October 2010: 5 citations
Total citations to date: 196
SOURCE: Hot Papers Database (Included with a subscription to the print newsletter Science Watch®, available from the Research Services Group of Thomson Reuters. Packaged on a CD that is mailed with each Science Watch issue, the Hot Papers Database contains data on hundreds of highly cited papers published during the last two years. User interface permits searching by author, organization, journal, field, and more. Total citations, as well as citations accrued during successive bimonthly periods, can be assessed and graphed.
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