• Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    They will likely be the last evidence that the human race ever existed.

    In 2-3 billion years the sun will leave the main sequence steady state it has been in. This will end in it turning into a red giant, and engulfing earth and destroying all record we existed.

    Meanwhile, the journey of Voyager 1 and 2 will have only just begun. They will continue moving through the expanding universe for at least 3,000,000 Billion years.

    • chiisana@lemmy.chiisana.net
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      1 year ago

      Wouldn’t friction (however little in deep outer space) eventually decay the crafts way before Earth is engulfed by the Sun?

      • Pons_Aelius@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Interspace is empty on a level that is hard to imagine.

        There are 2.652×10^25 molecules in one m^3 of air.

        That is 26520000000000000000000000.

        In intellar space?

        The is 1.

        IE: the probe would hit more atoms in one second on earth moving at 1 m/s than it would travelling the entire age of the universe so far through interstellar space.

        Even the space between the planets is thick with matter by comparison.

        • mustardman@discuss.tchncs.de
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          1 year ago

          I don’t think this comparison is really valid. If you are going through the molecules of air at the speed voyager is currently going it would vaporize. If you’re comparing it to more terrestrial speeds, It also ignores the amount of energy imparted by that 1 atom due to the high velocity. The high velocity also means it encounters those singular atoms and a higher rate.

    • LiiTheBaddie@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      If we are lucky the earth might survive after the sun becomes a red giant. As the sun expands because its gravity is weakening which means the hold on earth will be weaker and the earth will move away from the sun. Hopefully the speed we move away is equal to or faster than the suns expansion.