Voyager 2 made its closest approach to Uranus, January 24, 1986, being the first and only time this planet has been visited, by us, at least. The spacecraft made a number of surprising discoveries. For example, Uranus is the coldest planet despite not being the farthest from the sun, because it has no internal heat source. Neptune radiates over 2.5 more energy into space than Uranus does from the energy received from the sun.
It was already known that Uranus rotates on its side and the northern hemisphere is always in the sun, while the southern perpetually in the dark.
Voyager 2 discovered more moons and the count is 27 now.
Ariel
Miranda
Oberon
Umbriel
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