• 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.