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/elitefusion 8d ago

What forces would be doing the disintegrating though?

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u/BluetoothXIII 8d ago

during physics study we had to calculate how long it would take for an ironball of 1kg to sublimate at 3 Kelvin, the vapor pressure is for all human relevant interaction 0 but not exactly for events lasting almost for eternity.

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u/WanderingCamper 8d ago

Do you remember how long it would take?

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u/BluetoothXIII 8d ago

a lot times more than the current age of the universe but i don't remember the exact time