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It made the first detailed investigations of its five largest moons and discovered 10 new ones. Voyager 2 examined all nine of the system's known rings and discovered two more. [ 115 ] [ 145 ] [ 167 ] It also studied the magnetic field, its irregular structure, its tilt and its unique corkscrew magnetotail caused by Uranus's sideways orientation.
Date Name Image Other/Permanent designation Discoverer(s) and notes 1780s o: 13 March 1781 p: 26 April 1781 Uranus: 7th Planet: Herschel first reported the discovery of Uranus on 26 April 1781, initially believing it to be a comet. [17]: 11 January 1787 p: 15 February 1787 Titania: Uranus III Uranus I (1787–1797) Herschel.
In 1781, German-born British astronomer William Herschel made Uranus the first planet discovered with the aid of a telescope. This frigid planet, our solar system's third largest, remains a bit of ...
The exploration of Uranus has, to date, been through telescopes and a lone probe by NASA's Voyager 2 spacecraft, which made its closest approach to Uranus on January 24, 1986. Voyager 2 discovered 10 moons , studied the planet's cold atmosphere , and examined its ring system , discovering two new rings.
When the Voyager 2 spacecraft became the first and only mission to fly by Uranus in 1986, it defined the way astronomers understand the ice giant. But the data collected by the probe also ...
What’s known about Uranus could be off the mark. An unusual cosmic occurrence during the Voyager 2 spacecraft’s 1986 flyby might have skewed how scientists characterized the ice giant, new ...
Voyager 2 subsequently approached Saturn 9 months later with a gravity assist to further it towards Uranus. In January 1986, Voyager 2 became the first spacecraft to visit Uranus. During its flyby, it discovered 10 new moons, 2 new rings, and a magnetic field tilted at 55 degrees off-axis and off-center.
Alone but certainly unique, Uranus rotates at a nearly 90-degree angle and is surrounded by 13 icy rings. Images of which were captured in rich detail last year by the James Webb Space Telescope .