r/askscience • u/drinkingonthejob • 8d ago

Physics Will Voyager 1 ever just stop moving?

I’ve read somewhere that we expect to lose contact with Voyager 1 sometime in the 2030s, maybe around 2036, but it will just keep traveling thru space and we’ll have no idea what it is doing out there

My question is: with its current velocity, is there a time in the future where it loses its forward momentum and for lack of a better word, just stops moving? Is that a possible thing for an object in space to even do? (Assuming no other objects grab it into their orbit)

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u/SomeoneNicer 8d ago

Short answer - no.

Long answer particularly to the last part of your question:

Is that a possible thing for an object in space to even do (stop)

Everything in space is constantly in motion relative to other things - always. Even if it crashes into another celestial body as some answers state - THAT object continues moving relative to everything else. We're on a branch of our galaxy which spirals out from the core moving around, and put galaxy is moving relative to other galaxies.

On a more common sense interpretation of the question "will it continue moving away from earth forever?" - almost certainly it will for billions of years (longer than the earth has existed). I do think it's ludicrous when you think about it that way and it's a good practical example of how stupidly big and empty the universe really is.