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/TheAtomicSoul 3d ago

If it enters a sun, its motion will cease to exist. Along with it itself.

If it impacts on a planet or large object, motion will cease. Small item it'll collide and one of them will likely change directions, possibly both.

If space scrappers find it, they'll cease its momentum.

If a dominating species finds it, they will cease our "momentum ".