What will be the ultimate fate of deep space probes such as Pioneer 10 and 11 and Voyager 1 and 2, particularly the Pioneer plaques and Voyager golden records?
Here are what I believe are the high probability outcomes.
* Collision with a star or planetary atmosphere, and vaporization. This includes passing too close to a nova or supernova.
* Collision with a supermassive black hole. Will it be the Milky Way black hole or the combined Milky Way-Andromeda one?
* Collision with a solid object. Broken into many pieces, but possibly recoverable. The other outcomes may apply to the shards.
* Gradual decay until illegibility by the many forces of deep space and very long time: gas, dust, radiation, cosmic reinflation, proton decay.
What are the relative probabilities of these outcomes? Discovery by other intelligent life capable of decoding them seems very unlikely, even over the likely infinite remaining lifetime of the universe.
Would something be more likely to survive longer parked on a distant planet?
If things go poorly, these probes might end up as the last physical remnants of humanity.
No comments :
Post a Comment