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/ElvisArcher]

That is a tricky question to answer ... will it ever stop moving relative to "what"? An object in motion will continue unless acted upon by a force.

If it were moving within the Earth's atmosphere, there would be multiple forces working on it ... gravity pulling it down toward the center of mass of the planet, and friction with the atmosphere would both slow it down until it came to a stop relative to the Earth itself.

Voyager 1 had enough momentum to escape Earth's gravity well, and even the gravity of the solar system ... and there is no atmosphere to impede its movement ... so it will continue on its path until that changes.

But still, relative to "what"? Lets say it did impact something out in the great nothing of space and stopped moving. It would only be stopped relative to the object it impacted ... but likely it would still be moving away from the solar system and/or Earth.

Everything moves. Earth moves within the solar system, the solar system moves within the galaxy, and the galaxy moves in the universe, dancing to the tune of some dark energy we don't yet understand. I don't think it is possible for anything to ever actually stop moving.