Hypothetically, if Voyager was able to exit the realm of the milky way, would it still have a gravitational influence? I know once it goes through the bow shock, it will no longer be influenced by the sun's gravitational pull, but will still be under the milky way's gravity.
The bow shock is where the stellar wind theoretically gives way to the interstellar medium, yes? The suns gravitational influence does not just "shut off" at this point. As for voyager having escape velocity from the milky way, I have no idea. Interesting question. EDIT: This is the "heliopause". The bow shock is the wavefront of material that exists ahead of the solar system as it moves through the interstellar medium.
Ok. I just found that the escape velocity from the milky way, originating from the solar system, is about 1000km/sec. And based on JPL numbers, the probes velocities relative to sun as of 6/13/97 are: Voyager 1 = 17.374km/sec Voyager 2 = 15.957km/sec So, there you have it. Neither probe will ever escape the galaxy.
True, but hypothetically, if it had escaped the milky way, would there be any gravitational influence? If so, what from? If you were outside a galactic realm, I would think there would be no influence at all on you. The expansions that are occurring now, galaxies moving away from each other, are being caused from the initial big bang expansion. I would think that being outside a galaxy , you could come to a true "stop", unless the fabric of space itself also is expanding.
Sure. The influence of gravity is theoretically infinite. It drops off as the square of the distance between masses. In order of weakening influence: - The milky way - Other galaxies in the local group - Other galactic clusters You would be mistaken. Only on a large scale. For example, the milky way and the Andromeda galaxy are due to meet in (I believe) several billion more years. They are gravitationally bound to some degree. But virtually all other galactic groups ( beyond a certain distsnce) are being carried away from us (and each other) by cosmic expansion. Well, "true stop" is not possible in a relativistic universe, which ours happens to be. You always have to ask yourself, "stop with respect to what?" Everything is in motion. There is no real reference for absolute position or speed. Make any sense?
