4 ms·
It's going to hit gas that will slowly but inexorably sputter it to nothing.
by pfdietz 1y ago
It's going to hit gas that will slowly but inexorably sputter it to nothing.
- jacquesm 1y ago'Slowly' is doing a lot of work there. We're talking about very large amounts of time.
- hdgvhicv 1y agoLike 10^200 years In 10^40 years it will barely have scratched the surface. Unless protons decay.
- jacquesm 1y agoI'm imagining the sun going nova and the Voyagers surfing on that wave...
- rkomorn 1y agoI wonder where (and in what state) they'll be by then.
- pfdietz 1y agoThe Sun will not go nova.
- jacquesm 1y agoI think I said 'imagine'?
- hdgvhicv 1y agoVoyage is travelling about 1 light year per 22,000 years. That’s really fast on cosmic scales. If it left when the dinosaurs were wiped out it would be 3,000 light years away by now. Even if it left as late as when humans arrived in North America it would be a light year away.
- pfdietz 1y agoEstimates for sputtering of dust grains are much faster than this. Granted, there is also growth of dust grains. But surfaces from which atoms can be ejected by UV photons will erode. Some notes: https://www.astro.princeton.edu/~draine/dust/Draine_IPMU_Lectures.pdf https://www.astro.princeton.edu/~draine/dust/Draine_IPMU_Lec...