Explorations in 2011
- February 14
- Stardust few past Comet Tempel-1. It reexamined the damage inflicted by Deep Impact in 2005 and measured how the comet has changed since then.
- March 18
- Messenger entered orbit around Mercury. Over the following 12 months, it will map the entire surface from low altitudes.
- May 19
- Space shuttle Endeavour delivered Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer-2, a giant magnet designed to hunt for antimatter and dark matter and study cosmic rays, to the International Space Station.
- July 16
- The Dawn spacecraft entered orbit around the asteroid Vesta, one of the biggest of the solar system’s leftovers. Dawn will orbit Vesta for about a year, then leave orbit, cross the asteroid belt, and enter orbit around the largest asteroid, Ceres.
- September 8
- GRAIL (Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory) will launch toward the Moon from Cape Canaveral, Florida.
- November 25
- The launch window opens for Curiosity, the next Mars rover.
The Astro Guides for the Solar System and Beyond the Solar System are supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant Nos. NNG04G131G and NAG5-13147, respectively.
