Voyager 2 came within about 50,000 miles of Uranus' cloud tops, providing the first-ever close-up views of the planet, its rings and its moons. A NASA image of Uranus taken by Voyager 2 in 1986.

A solar wind event squashed the protective bubble around Uranus just before Voyager 2 flew by the planet in 1986, shifting how astronomers understood the mysterious world.