# Voyager 2's Historic Uranus Encounter: January 23, 1986

# Astronomy Tonight Podcast

This is your Astronomy Tonight podcast.

Tonight, we're celebrating January 23rd—a date that marks one of the most thrilling moments in the history of planetary exploration! On this day in 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its closest approach to the planet Uranus, and what it revealed absolutely *blew the minds* of astronomers everywhere.

Imagine this: For centuries, Uranus was this distant, featureless blue-green dot in our telescopes. We knew almost nothing about it. Sure, we'd discovered it back in 1781—which was itself a shock because nobody expected there to be planets we didn't know about!—but Uranus kept its secrets locked away behind billions of miles of empty space and a thick atmosphere.

Then came Voyager 2, humanity's greatest space explorer, screaming through the outer solar system at incredible speeds. When it encountered Uranus, it sent back images that showed us a world we'd never imagined: a tilted ice giant spinning on its side like a cosmic top, with mysterious rings, furious winds, and a retinue of moons we'd never seen before. The spacecraft discovered 10 new moons and confirmed the existence of faint rings around this distant world.

And here's the wild part: Uranus is tilted at a 98-degree angle—meaning it essentially rotates on its side! Scientists still argue about whether a massive collision early in our solar system's history knocked this ice giant sideways, or if something even stranger happened. We still don't have all the answers!

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