# Voyager 2's Historic Encounter with the Tilted Ice Giant Uranus
Published: January 24, 2026
Duration: 1:38
# This is your Astronomy Tonight podcast.
Good evening, stargazers! Today is January 24th, and we're celebrating one of the most delightfully quirky anniversaries in astronomical history.
On this date in 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its historic flyby of **Uranus**, giving us our first and—to this day—only close-up images of this tilted ice giant. And when I say "tilted," I mean *tilted*. Uranus rotates on its side at an extreme 98-degree axial tilt, making it the solar system's resident oddball. Scientists still debate whether it got knocked over by a massive collision billions of years ago...
Good evening, stargazers! Today is January 24th, and we're celebrating one of the most delightfully quirky anniversaries in astronomical history.
On this date in 1986, the Voyager 2 spacecraft made its historic flyby of **Uranus**, giving us our first and—to this day—only close-up images of this tilted ice giant. And when I say "tilted," I mean *tilted*. Uranus rotates on its side at an extreme 98-degree axial tilt, making it the solar system's resident oddball. Scientists still debate whether it got knocked over by a massive collision billions of years ago...