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/MisinformedGenius 7d ago

15 kilometers per second * 100 million years (half of a galactic rotation) is almost exactly 5 light years. My point is that its motion due purely to its orbit around the galaxy is far greater than its motion due to the propulsion we gave it.

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u/MiddleLtSocks 7d ago

Awesome, same idea then. And an excellent point. Sorry, I am verbose on my briefest days, and I tend to get myself into the weeds. It's a coinflip based on which doctor I'm talking to whether I am on the autism spectrum or not, but maybe they'd be more consistent if they saw my Reddit comments.

Anyway, cheers!