• GeekFTW@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    If we take a moment to anthropomorphize Voyager here - It kinda is. Think of the pure vastness of space. Remember that all of the planets in our Solar System can fit between the Earth and our own Moon with a little space to spare.

    Look up to the sky, point in any direction and (with the magical ability to fly up and through space) go in that direction without changing course, and there is an almost 100% guarantee you will never run into anything. Sure you may see things go by as you travel, but its just…never ending travel, fast as shit, through endless space until you just…stop and die.

    Voyager’s just gonna keep going, and going…and going. It’s material will eventually break down I assume, due to exposure, and perhaps fall to pieces, but…it’ll keep going.

    • AbidanYre@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Space is big. You just won’t believe how vastly, hugely, mind-bogglingly big it is. I mean, you may think it’s a long way down the road to the chemist’s, but that’s just peanuts to space.

      • Matt@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        I would suspect at some point it will come into contact with other matter but yea… That could take a very, very long time.

          • Puppy@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Given an infinite amount of time, I would say the chance are not just likely, but certainly 100% chance of happening

            • arefx@lemmy.ml
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              1 year ago

              Definitely, it will happen at some point. Probably not for an unfathomably long amount of time, however.

                • Sylver@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  It would have to be on a direct collision course, which would still lead to those stats that would be represented in scientific notation due to how unlikely it is to occur.

                  They will float until we intercept them in a thousand years, or their atoms begin to decompose

            • Scubus@sh.itjust.works
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              1 year ago

              Not neccasarily. You have to remember that space is expanding. That means that eventually the probes would undergo the big rip where they are torn apart. Prior to that however, they would be so far from anything that it would be impossible for them to interact with anything.

      • GeekFTW@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Space exposure. I’m not what anyone would typically classify as “smart” by any stretch but I have to imagine being out traveling in interstellar space for (eventually) centuries will end up in some kind of eventual damage, be it either from idk fuck ass Space Radiation™, or micro asteroid impacts, or anything else.