Seems Australian Astronomy has just found that Voyager 1's trajectory is showing signs of it being pulled by something.

Is Planet 9 turning it into a Sednoid?

Voyager 1 would be outside our solar system's area of influence for the last decade. I chance an opinion that it will get sucked into a new planet's gravity, or have it's obliteration into the nearest star.

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 3:01pm:

Voyager 1 would be outside our solar system's area of influence for the last decade. I chance an opinion that it will get sucked into a new planet's gravity, or have it's obliteration into the nearest star.

I suspect it is still a thousand years from the nearest star. No idea how possible a planet in that region but if there was it would be hard to detect I imagine.

Dnarever wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 3:20pm:

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 4th, 2026 at 3:01pm: Voyager 1 would be outside our solar system's area of influence for the last decade. I chance an opinion that it will get sucked into a new planet's gravity, or have it's obliteration into the nearest star. I suspect it is still a thousand years from the nearest star. No idea how possible a planet in that region but if there was it would be hard to detect I imagine.

70,000 years if it was headed to the closest star but it is not.

They haven't found what's pulling it off trajectory. Other than the sun, of which it is now longer gravity bound by, nearest star is 70,000 years away.

Either interstellar space has something akin to ocean currents or something is nearby giving it a gravity tug??

Jasin wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 6:23pm:

They haven't found what's pulling it off trajectory. Other than the sun, of which it is now longer gravity bound by, nearest star is 70,000 years away. Either interstellar space has something akin to ocean currents or something is nearby giving it a gravity tug??

It is slowing down because the Sun's gravity is still working on it -

even though it has escape velocity from our solar system.

The Great Escape!!!

Our universe might just be a bubble in a ocean.

Voyager 1 left the heliosphere on August 25, 2012. It's in interstellar space.

Correct.

Wasn't this explained in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

Why not pushed ?

Muriel wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 10:27pm:

Wasn't this explained in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture?

It absorbed so much information that it developed sentience.

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 10:56pm:

Muriel wrote on Jul 4th, 2026 at 10:27pm: Wasn't this explained in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture? It absorbed so much information that it developed sentience.

Not exactly: an alien spaceship pulled it away and super-charged it to collect information.

Setanta wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 8:13pm:

Voyager 1 left the heliosphere on August 25, 2012. It's in interstellar space.

It is amazing.

Muriel wrote on Jul 4^th, 2026 at 11:43pm:

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 4th, 2026 at 10:56pm: Muriel wrote on Jul 4th, 2026 at 10:27pm: Wasn't this explained in the 1979 film Star Trek: The Motion Picture? It absorbed so much information that it developed sentience. Not exactly: an alien spaceship pulled it away and super-charged it to collect information.

Nah, that was the (fictional) Voyager 6.  :)

Voyager would be so far away from our solar system, that the next solar system would be having an effect on the craft.

Could be. But it's in interstellar space. So called neutral zone between Star systems.
It has to be something nearby with exceptional mass to be pulling Voyager off its original trajectory.

If our Solar System, Orrt Cloud included, was a grain of sand on your finger.
The nearest grain, Proxima Centauri would as far as Baltimore is from Miami.

I heard a similar comparison many years ago.

If the Solar System (as far as the orbit of Pluto) was put on a 5 cent piece then Proxima Centauri would be 200 feet away.

I should put a 5 cent piece on the ground one day and walk 200 feet away and see if it is still visible.  8-)

That's a big difference in estimation. A grain of sand representing our solar system. And the distance to the next solar system being the equivalent of Miami to Baltimore.

Orrrrr.... a 5 cent piece representing our solar system. And the next solar system being 200 ft away.

Which is it? Could you not give real distances?

UnSubRocky wrote on Jul 8^th, 2026 at 7:43am:

That's a big difference in estimation. A grain of sand representing our solar system. And the distance to the next solar system being the equivalent of Miami to Baltimore. Orrrrr.... a 5 cent piece representing our solar system. And the next solar system being 200 ft away. Which is it? Could you not give real distances?

I noticed that too.

Here's another one:

How big is the Distance from the Sun to Proxima Centauri?

40 trillion kilometers!


Quote:

If the Sun was a pea in New York City, Proxima Centauri would be a similar-sized pea in Los Angeles!

Truly mind boggling.

Did Voyager 1 really turn around in deep space and make a discovery that scientists can't explain? The internet is filled with dramatic claims about NASA's most distant spacecraft—but what does the scientific evidence actually show?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO65j14ekyg

Great thread, thanks guys

I saw it from the PBS Astro-Cosmology channel with that Australian presenter.
Sorry, can't provide link. I'm a moron.

tallowood wrote on Jul 8^th, 2026 at 9:07am:

Did Voyager 1 really turn around in deep space and make a discovery that scientists can't explain? The internet is filled with dramatic claims about NASA's most distant spacecraft—but what does the scientific evidence actually show? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO65j14ekyg

Very good. I have heard nothing about most of this. Wonder what is going on with Voyager 2 if it isn't going to follow. They say that it will be over 25 years before another mission could go out there.

I've heard something of a Voyager 3 being planned to use the Sun's gravity to slingshot 90 degrees from our System's plane to try and photograph from above all planets.
When this happens, I don't know?

Our System's plane travels along the galactic plane at 60 degrees angle for starters.
So you could say Uranus is the right way up.

Jasin wrote on Jul 9^th, 2026 at 9:01am:

I've heard something of a Voyager 3 being planned to use the Sun's gravity to slingshot 90 degrees from our System's plane to try and photograph from above all planets. When this happens, I don't know? Our System's plane travels along the galactic plane at 60 degrees angle for starters. So you could say Uranus is the right way up.

Have to wait till year 2152 because the planetary alignment that enabled the original Voyagers  only happens once every 175 years.

But they've mentioned a gravity assist out of our Solar plane (upwards... or downwards?)
By the Sun only (so far), unless I've missed something extra.

With our Solar plane being tilted 60*degrees against the flow of the galactic plane.
I do hope they send it 'backwards & behind' our Solar plane trajectory as this would speed up the distance achieved for a full Solar system photo, considering the speed of our system moving forward along the galactic plane. Might even make a 20 year difference?