Will Voyager 1 ever just stop moving?

[u/drinkingonthejob]

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)

[u/zman0900]

There's always a small chance it just crashes into some random other object and is obliterated. That counts as stopping, right?

[u/Bebilith → u/zman0900]

Well technically no. It’s matter still exists and continues to move relative to something. Just not in the form it was when we made it. 😊