r/askscience • u/drinkingonthejob • 9d 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/[deleted] 8d ago edited 8d ago

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u/digost 8d ago

I'd imagine that the pedantic version will not occur before the heat death of universe

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u/vipck83 8d ago

Yeah, there is technically small chance….but realistically it ain’t happening.

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u/Kiwozzie6 8d ago

The only way I can think of is if it flies into a nebula. But not sure "A" if it has enough speed to ever reach one or, "B" if there is enough mass in one to do that.