Here is a collection of some important papers in astrophysics and planetary science from the modern era. These are not good introductions to the state of the art — for that, refer to recent review papers. Instead, these mark important steps forward in the development of the field.
As always, when working through one of these papers, remember to ask yourself why it was not published a decade or two earlier. What other circumstances or developments enabled the work to be done at that point in time?
This collection is a work in progress. Your suggestions and nominations — especially with ADS links — are always welcome!
Cosmology, Large Scale Structure, Galaxies
- Hubble (1929), A Relation between Distance and Radial Velocity among Extra-Galactic Nebulae, 1929PNAS...15..168H.
- Penzias and Wilson (1965), A Measurement of Excess Antenna Temperature at 4080 Mc/s., 1965ApJ...142..419P.
Dicke, Peebles, Roll, and Wilkinson (1965), Cosmic Black-Body Radiation., 1965ApJ...142..414D. - Gunn and Peterson (1965), On the Density of Neutral Hydrogen in Intergalactic Space., 1965ApJ...142.1633G.
- Partridge and Peebles (1967), Are Young Galaxies Visible?, 1967ApJ...147..868P.
- Sachs and Wolfe (1967), Perturbations of a Cosmological Model and Angular Variations of the Microwave Background, 1967ApJ...147...73S.
- Sunyaev and Zeldovich (1970), Small-Scale Fluctuations of Relic Radiation, 1970Ap&SS...7....3S.
- Freeman (1970), On the Disks of Spiral and S0 Galaxies, 1970ApJ...160..811F.
- Toomre and Toomre (1972), Galactic Bridges and Tails, 1972ApJ...178..623T.
- Press and Schechter (1974), Formation of Galaxies and Clusters of Galaxies by Self-Similar Gravitational Condensation, 1974ApJ...187..425P.
Bond, Cole, Efstathiou, and Kaiser (1991), Excursion Set Mass Functions for Hierarchical Gaussian Fluctuations, 1991ApJ...379..440B. - Rees and Ostriker (1977), Cooling, dynamics and fragmentation of massive gas clouds: clues to the masses and radii of galaxies and clusters., 1977MNRAS.179..541R.
- Guth (1981), Inflationary universe: A possible solution to the horizon and flatness problems, 1981PhRvD..23..347G.
- Yang, Turner et al. (1984), Primordial nucleosynthesis : a critical comparison of theory and observation., 1984ApJ...281..493Y.
- White, Navarro, Evrard, and Frenk (1993), The baryon content of galaxy clusters: a challenge to cosmological orthodoxy, 1993Natur.366..429W.
- Navarro, Frenk, and White (1997), A Universal Density Profile from Hierarchical Clustering, 1997ApJ...490..493N.
- Kennicutt (1998), The Global Schmidt Law in Star-forming Galaxies, 1998ApJ...498..541K.
- Planck Collaboration (2020), Planck 2018 results. I. Overview and the cosmological legacy of Planck, 2020A&A...641A...1P.
- Riess, Filippenko et al. (1998), Observational Evidence from Supernovae for an Accelerating Universe and a Cosmological Constant, 1998AJ....116.1009R.
Perlmutter, Aldering et al. (1999), Measurements of Omega and Lambda from 42 High-Redshift Supernovae, 1999ApJ...517..565P.
Gamma Ray Bursts
- Klebesadel, Strong, and Olson (1973), Observations of Gamma-Ray Bursts of Cosmic Origin, 1973ApJ...182L..85K.
(See also, Weekes (1999), Klebesadel, Strong, & Olson's Discovery of Gamma-Ray Bursts, 1999ApJ...525C1218W.) - Paczynski (1986), Gamma-ray bursters at cosmological distances, 1986ApJ...308L..43P.
- Costa, Frontera et al. (1997), Discovery of an X-ray afterglow associated with the gamma-ray burst of 28 February 1997, 1997Natur.387..783C.
- Metzger, Djorgovski et al. (1997), Spectral constraints on the redshift of the optical counterpart to the γ-ray burst of 8 May 1997, 1997Natur.387..878M.
- Frail, Kulkarni et al. (1997), The radio afterglow from the gamma-ray burst of 8 May 1997, 1997Natur.389..261F.
- Mészáros and Rees (1997), Optical and Long-Wavelength Afterglow from Gamma-Ray Bursts, 1997ApJ...476..232M.
Stars and Our Galaxy
- Ewen and Purcell (1951), Observation of a Line in the Galactic Radio Spectrum: Radiation from Galactic Hydrogen at 1,420 Mc./sec., 1951Natur.168..356E.
Muller and Oort (1951), Observation of a Line in the Galactic Radio Spectrum: The Interstellar Hydrogen Line at 1,420 Mc./sec., and an Estimate of Galactic Rotation, 1951Natur.168..357M. - Salpeter (1955), The Luminosity Function and Stellar Evolution., 1955ApJ...121..161S.
- Burbidge, Burbidge, Fowler, and Hoyle (1957), Synthesis of the Elements in Stars, 1957RvMP...29..547B.
- Hanbury Brown and Twiss (1956), A Test of a New Type of Stellar Interferometer on Sirius, 1956Natur.178.1046H.
Hanbury Brown and Twiss (1958), Interferometry of the Intensity Fluctuations in Light. IV. A Test of an Intensity Interferometer on Sirius A, 1958RSPSA.248..222B. - Eggen, Lynden-Bell, and Sandage (1962), Evidence from the motions of old stars that the Galaxy collapsed., 1962ApJ...136..748E.
Neutron Stars and Pulsars
- Pacini (1967), Energy Emission from a Neutron Star, 1967Natur.216..567P.
- Hewish, Bell, et al. (1968), Observation of a Rapidly Pulsating Radio Source, 1968Natur.217..709H.
- Gold (1968), Rotating Neutron Stars as the Origin of the Pulsating Radio Sources, 1968Natur.218..731G.
- Goldreich and Julian (1969), Pulsar Electrodynamics, 1969ApJ...157..869G.
- Ruderman and Sutherland (1975), Theory of pulsars: polar gaps, sparks, and coherent microwave radiation., 1975ApJ...196...51R.
- Hulse and Taylor (1975), Discovery of a Pulsar in a Binary System, 1975ApJ...195L..51H.
Taylor and Weisberg (1982), A new test of general relativity - Gravitational radiation and the binary pulsar PSR 1913+16, 1982ApJ...253..908T. - Backer, Kulkarni, et al. (1982), A Millisecond Pulsar, 1982Natur.300..615B.
- Burrows and Lattimer (1986), The Birth of Neutron Stars, 1986ApJ...307..178B.
- Lattimer and Prakash (2007), Neutron star observations: Prognosis for equation of state constraints, 2007PhR...442..109L.
Black Holes
- Event Horizon Telescope Collaboration (2019), First M87 Event Horizon Telescope Results. I. The Shadow of the Supermassive Black Hole, 2019ApJ...875L...1E.
Gravitational Waves and Multi-Messenger Astronomy
- Bionta, Blewitt et al. (1987), Observation of a neutrino burst in coincidence with supernova 1987A in the Large Magellanic Cloud, 1987PhRvL..58.1494B.
Hirata, Kajita et al. (1987), Observation of a neutrino burst from the supernova SN1987A, 1987PhRvL..58.1490H. - Abbott et al. (2016), Observation of Gravitational Waves from a Binary Black Hole Merger, 2016PhRvL.116f1102A.
- Abbott et al. (2017), Multi-messenger Observations of a Binary Neutron Star Merger, 2017ApJ...848L..12A.
Abbott et al. (2017), Gravitational Waves and Gamma-Rays from a Binary Neutron Star Merger: GW170817 and GRB 170817A, 2017ApJ...848L..13A.
Exoplanets
- Wolszczan and Frail (1992), A planetary system around the millisecond pulsar PSR1257 + 12, 1992Natur.355..145W.
- Mayor and Queloz (1995), A Jupiter-mass companion to a solar-type star, 1995Natur.378..355M.
- Henry, Marcy, Butler, and Vogt (2000), A Transiting ``51 Peg-like'' Planet, 2000ApJ...529L..41H;
Charbonneau, Brown, Latham, and Mayor (2000), Detection of Planetary Transits Across a Sun-like Star, 2000ApJ...529L..45C. - Charbonneau, Brown, Noyes, and Gilliland (2002), Detection of an Extrasolar Planet Atmosphere, 2002ApJ...568..377C.
- Vidal-Madjar et al. (2003), An extended upper atmosphere around the extrasolar planet HD209458b, 2003Natur.422..143V.
- Deming, Seager, Richardson, and Harrington (2005), Infrared radiation from an extrasolar planet, 2005Natur.434..740D.
- Tinetti et al. (2007), Water vapour in the atmosphere of a transiting extrasolar planet, 2007Natur.448..169T.
- Swain, Vasisht, and Tinetti (2008), The presence of methane in the atmosphere of an extrasolar planet, 2008Natur.452..329S.
- Borucki et al. (2010), Kepler Planet-Detection Mission: Introduction and First Results, 2010Sci...327..977B.
Solar System
- Burke and Franklin (1955), Observations of a Variable Radio Source Associated with the Planet Jupiter, 1955JGR....60..213B.
Bigg (1964), Influence of the Satellite Io on Jupiter's Decametric Emission, 1964Natur.203.1008B. - Bahcall and Bethe (1990), Solution of the solar-neutrino problem, 1990PhRvL..65.2233B.
- The Nice model for the solar system:
Gomes, Morbidelli, and Levison (2004), Planetary migration in a planetesimal disk: why did Neptune stop at 30 AU?, 2004Icar..170..492G.
Gomes, Levison, Tsiganis, and Morbidelli (2005), Origin of the cataclysmic Late Heavy Bombardment period of the terrestrial planets, 2005Natur.435..466G.
Morbidelli, Levison, Tsiganis, and Gomes (2005), Chaotic capture of Jupiter's Trojan asteroids in the early Solar System, 2005Natur.435..462M.
Tsiganis, Gomes, Morbidelli, and Levison (2005), Origin of the orbital architecture of the giant planets of the Solar System, 2005Natur.435..459T. - Kivelson, Khurana et al. (2000), Galileo Magnetometer Measurements: A Stronger Case for a Subsurface Ocean at Europa, 2000Sci...289.1340K.
Astrobiology and SETI
- Chyba, Thomas, Brookshaw, and Sagan (1990), Cometary Delivery of Organic Molecules to the Early Earth, 1990Sci...249..366C.
Chyba and Sagan (1992), Endogenous production, exogenous delivery and impact-shock synthesis of organic molecules: an inventory for the origins of life, 1992Natur.355..125C. - Sagan, Thompson et al. (1993), A search for life on Earth from the Galileo spacecraft, 1993Natur.365..715S.
- Horowitz and Sagan (1993), Five Years of Project META: an All-Sky Narrow-Band Radio Search for Extraterrestrial Signals, 1993ApJ...415..218H.
- McKay, Gibson et al. (1996), Search for Past Life on Mars: Possible Relic Biogenic Activity in Martian Meteorite ALH84001, 1996Sci...273..924M.
