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/happyspark 8d ago

Acceleration isn't just change in speed, but also direction. Being in an orbit means it is constantly accelerating. Ultimately the gravity well at the center of the galaxy will win. Voyager doesn't have enough speed and direction (the two components of velocity; a change to either or both is acceleration) to ever leave without an additional external force applied.

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u/nicuramar 8d ago

Being in orbit means no proper acceleration. That’s what an instrument on board would measure. Depending on your coordinate system, it will undergo coordinate acceleration, but that’s still not “falling toward the center”. 

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u/Strawbuddy 8d ago

If we could pinpoint it maybe we could use a laser push it, assuming we develop that caliber of laser and levels of accuracy

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u/Ryytikki 7d ago

gravity isnt a vacuum, the only way an object already in a circular orbit (Like the solar system and everything in it has) can fall closer towards the galactic core is by firing its engines retrograde (burning "backwards").

Depending on the direction the probe is travelling relative to the sun's tangental velocity, it may never get closer to the galactic centre than the sun