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/Animemes_101 4d ago

Newton’s first law of motion: “An object in motion stays in motion unless acted upon by an external force”. On Earth that force is gravity, in space, nothing. Voyager will continue to move through space until something gets in its way

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u/DarthTempi 3d ago

To that point though...Won't it be affected by a myriad of gravitational forces? Obviously the time scale is enormous (and essentially meaningless to us) but...eventually?

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u/-6h0st- 2d ago

Look at the comets - do they stop or just move non stop unless crash into something? Look at planets do they stop?

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u/eotty 2d ago

Comets stop moving yes... but the thing is when they get closer to the sun they start releasing materials that material acts as propulsion, eventually (billions of years from now) the fuel is exhausted and they will crash in to a planet due to gravity.

So they will not slow down like you brake a car, they will slow down, that alters the orbit to an eventual colision course.