First and Only Visit to Uranus: Voyager 2 remains the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus, providing humanity’s only close-up images and data of the ice giant.
Close Encounter: The spacecraft passed just 81,500 kilometers (50,500 miles) above Uranus’ cloud tops in January 1986, revealing intricate details of its atmosphere and rings.
Discovery of New Rings: Voyager 2 discovered 11 new rings around Uranus, some of which are faint and difficult to see, expanding our understanding of the planet’s ring system.
Magnetic Field Surprises: Voyager 2 found that Uranus has an oddly tilted and off-center magnetic field, which was a mystery since planets usually have magnetic fields aligned with their poles.
Strange Atmosphere: The flyby revealed that Uranus' atmosphere is composed mostly of hydrogen, helium, and methane, with the methane giving the planet its distinctive blue color.
Moon Discoveries: Voyager 2 found 10 new moons during the flyby, bringing the total number of Uranus’s known moons to 15. It also gave us a closer look at Miranda, one of the most bizarre moons in the solar system.
Temperature Extremes: The spacecraft measured incredibly cold temperatures, with Uranus being the coldest planet in the solar system, at around -224°C (-371°F), despite being farther from the Sun than Neptune.
No Rings Found Around Neptune: Interestingly, Voyager 2's Uranus flyby helped confirm that Neptune’s ring system is much less extensive than expected, guiding later research on the ice giant's own system.