Why is Voyager 1 not where it's supposed to be?

Its in interstellar space, how couldn't stellar drift bring it that many degree's away from us, the sun is hurtling around the center of our galaxy and other stars are moving in relation as that as well, so how are we viewing voyager at that time?

to give a slight visual example.

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does the sun overtake voyager? which should be out of its gravity?

are we at that time viewing from position 1 or 2 angle for us, would change dramatically.

Heck op is showing pictures of stellar locations now last I checked, are they even relevant from our view in 1000 years?

I haven't really looked into it, but there's no way for me to say if OP's calculations are correct or not, I can only say that over 1000 years any single variable being off could voyager in one heck of another position.


Update:
I found an article indicating that in 40000 years voyager will be nearing AC +79 3888, maybe that helps? where is AC +79 3888 on that map?

This is its current location if it helps.
Right ascension: 14h15m39.70s
Declination: +19°10'57.0"
Apparent magnitude: -0.04
Distance: 11.255 parsecs

did of bit of examination and using http://www.sky-map.org
it does indeed seem that voyager at least pure relation wise, should be to the right of the location OP indicates?

AC +79 3888, also known as Gliese 445, is in the constellation of Camelopardalis, somewhere around here (about halfway between the "tails" of Ursa Minor and Draco):

pznRVzr.png


As for stellar drift, I checked the proper motion numbers (the rate at which a star moves across the sky relative to the Sun) for both HIP 62500 (where the probe is in the game) and HIP 84308 (where it's in real life). For HIP 62500, it's 163 milliarcseconds per year or 4.5*10^-5 degrees per year. For HIP 84308, it's about 44 milliarcseconds per year, or 1.2*10^-5 degrees per year.

A thousand years is 10^3 years so we can instantly tell neither one of those two stars could possibly have moved anywhere near enough to produce a 72 degree difference. 10^-5 * 10^3 is 0.01, so even HIP 62500, which is the faster of the two, would only have moved about 0.055 degrees in 1200 years. This is exactly why using stars is such a reliable navigation method and has been a thing for thousands of years, possibly for almost as long as modern humans have existed (200,000 years, give or take a few thousand). You could go back to ancient Rome or Greece and navigate by the stars almost as easily as you can today (the Earth's axis precesses so the stars would be in a slightly different orientation compared to what they look like now, but relative to the Sun, they'd still be in exactly the same place).

Even Barnard's Star, the fastest moving star in the sky, only has a total proper motion of 10,367 milliarcseconds per year, or 0.0029 degrees per year, so it would only cover 3.48 degrees in 1200 years. Like I said earlier, a thousand years is literally nothing on this kind of timescale. Even a hundred thousand years is a short time - the largest and brightest stars, which also have the shortest lifespan, still live for millions of years. The lifespans of dwarf stars, which are the by far the most common type of star in the universe, are measured in billions, even tens or hundreds of billions of years.

Edit: Also, I don't know if Voyager 2 is in the right place because I haven't visited it yet.

Edit2: I watched this video:

[video=youtube;fk2X0W1FrcQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fk2X0W1FrcQ[/video]

And located the probe on the star chart:

tC7nCR4.png


And it turns out Voyager 2 is also in the wrong place. Orange is where the probe is in the game (in/near the Cygnus constellation), blue is where it should be (it's heading towards Alpha Centauri and will reach it in about 80,000 years). But again, since Barnard's Star is the fastest star in the sky and it'll only move a few degrees in 1200 years, Voyager 2's apparent position can't possibly have drifted this much.
 
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I did see the video and it has got nothing to do with this. The Voyager probe was clearly hand crafted.

The question was about F D - "do they not have anyone with basic astronomy knowledge" - so my post was basically saying yes they do.

I was not saying that Voyager 1 position was determined by Stellar Forge, nor was I disputing whether there is a disparity in position (I have not checked and don't really care). Just pointing out that yes there are some bright people on the team and look, here is one: MPhys Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, PHD Experimental Particle Physics.
 
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Obviously I don't know how they calculated it, but there's also, I believe its called stellar drift to take into account, the fact that the surrounding stars will move in relation to the sun, add the sun itself also moves in the galaxy, and that those charts are from our perspective, there seems to be a host of potential variables where getting even one incorrect would leave you far off the mark.
What about voyager 2? is it where it should be?

Not possible, the distances of the stars are the same as they are now.
 
The question was about F D - "do they not have anyone with basic astronomy knowledge" - so my post was basically saying yes they do.

I was not saying that Voyager 1 position was determined by Stellar Forge, nor was I disputing whether there is a disparity in position (I have not checked and don't really care). Just pointing out that yes there are some bright people on the team and look, here is one: MPhys Physics, Astrophysics and Cosmology, PHD Experimental Particle Physics.

Oh well yeah they do, but that doesn't solve their mistakes, that'd be an Ad Verecundiam fallacy ;)
 
Barring the obvious (Frontier goofed), I can think of one other reason why the probes are not where they should be:

They encountered something along the way.

While both probes are leaving the plane of the ecliptic, it will still be some time before they really clear the solar system, and between now and then, it's possible they would have had a close encounter with a large-ish body - say a Kuiper Belt object. If the approach was just right, it would result in a change in direction.

Just what that body - or bodies - was, how big it would need to be, how close the approach would have to be... that, sadly is out of my league. Those with better resources could probably run the numbers and see if this is a viable theory.
 
Because the game is set in the future.

Did you even read any of the stuff I wrote? "It's set in the future" doesn't solve the problem. The numbers don't add up. The stars don't move anywhere near quickly enough, and the probe is physically incapable of changing its trajectory by 72 degrees when it's moving at 17 km/s. It doesn't have enough fuel for that, and it's going to run out of electrical power in 2030 anyway.
 
I like such stuff :)
And I'm quite sure you will -unfortunately- dont get an answer to your initial 'why?' question, @op ;)

Maybe their relative position to each other is correct?
 
Just curious, how was the Voyager I in the game found if it's in the wrong place? Did FD provide the information where to look? It's over 2,000,000ls from the sun, so I do not suppose it was found by accident.
 
Did you even read any of the stuff I wrote? "It's set in the future" doesn't solve the problem. The numbers don't add up. The stars don't move anywhere near quickly enough, and the probe is physically incapable of changing its trajectory by 72 degrees when it's moving at 17 km/s. It doesn't have enough fuel for that, and it's going to run out of electrical power in 2030 anyway.

Yes, you have done your maths Mr OP, but you missed out on the unknown variable which was the worm hole factor.
Other explanation could be that Thargoids kicked it out of trajectory when it thought it was space junk.
 

TWitko

Banned
Yes, you have done your maths Mr OP, but you missed out on the unknown variable which was the worm hole factor.
Other explanation could be that Thargoids kicked it out of trajectory when it thought it was space junk.

...Speaking is silver, silence is golden ... sometimes ... :rolleyes:

TW [o]
 

TWitko

Banned
OP - anyway ... it's great idea and great maths ... I really appreciate it - accept my compliment [up]
I'm not expert at all, so I can't help you with it (sorry for that), but I'm interested in some reasonable explanation (hope we will get it) ...

TW <o
 
Has anyone visited Voyager 1 recently?
What is the current distance from Sol..?
(tried to find it using the Youtube video, but no success.... :( )
 
Just curious, how was the Voyager I in the game found if it's in the wrong place? Did FD provide the information where to look? It's over 2,000,000ls from the sun, so I do not suppose it was found by accident.
The question I have is: How was it found in the first place if it really is at the wrong location as claimed by the OP?
Resurrecting this because I wonder the same.
 
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