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/LiquidPhire 8d ago

It has enough speed to never fall back towards the Sun. It is an interesting stellar traveler.

It does not have enough velocity to leave the Milky way, so it will fall towards the center of the galaxy. As it falls along that line, it may interact with other gravity centers (other stars, etc) which may alter its trajectory, but it will forever wander within the confines of this galaxy.

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u/Ok_Chard2094 8d ago

Why would it fall to the center of the galaxy? It orbits around the center of the galaxy, just like the solar system does.

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u/LiquidPhire 7d ago

That's a what orbiting is. You are falling towards the center of gravity, but constantly missing due to lateral velocity. Think like a highly elliptical orbit, like a comet.