If a gun where to fire a bullet in space, would the bullet go endlessly or stop at some point?

Answer 1

Go read Newton's first law.

That said, if you are doing it in the vicinity of earth, there are several possibilities for how it ends up. It might end up in orbit forever. It might get enough energy to escape orbit. Or it's orbital path might take it through the atmosphere, in which case it will re-enter and come to a stop.

Answer 2

The laws of inertia would dictate it's direction and speed. If traveling directly away from a gravitational source, it would probably stop and fall back to the source. If it's away from any gravitational sources it would travel until sufficient force comes upon it to either slow it to a stop or change it's direction.

There is a force known to exist called the solar winds. This wind could be used to accelerate a space craft away from the sun until it approaches the solar-pause, the point where the wind has no more energy.

Still, there are cosmic rays in space That would affect the trajectory of a bullet. These tiny particles have energy and will collide with molecules in the bullet causing it to turn, slow , or speed up. But eventually all things change direction and at some point come to rest (with respects to relative local motion).

Suppose it fell back to the earth and stopped. The earth is moving through space, so technically, the bullet would still be traveling.

But at the root of your question, relatively speaking, it would eventually stop due to stray hydrogen molicules that fill the empty spaces of space.

Answer 3

Where in space? The fastest civilian bullet is a Winchester .220 Swift with a 48 grain bullet muzzle velocity of 4110 feet/sec. That is woefully insufficent to escape the Sun's gravitation at Earth's orbit. It is less than a sixth the speed necessary to orbit the Earth.

Fire the round It travels through the vacuum of space trading gravitational potential energy for kinetic energy. It falls to Earth or orbits the sun depending on what its launch platform was doing.

In general, the bullet travels being slowed by collisions with residual hydrogn atoms in the vacuum. Given a few hydrogen atoms/cm^3 (about 10^(-16 torr) it travels essentially forever given its initial velocity.

Answer 4

In theory it will go on indefinitely. However, space is not entirely empty. Particles pop in and out of existence all the time, thus slowing the bullet in very miniscule amounts. After a very long but definitely finite amount of time, the bullet would either have disintegrated or slowed to a stop. Also, chances are, eventually, due to gravitational attraction, it will collide with a heavenly body, be it a chunk of interstellar rock, interstellar gas clouds, planets, suns or even black holes.

Answer 5

It would continue endlessly until it's speed decreased enough to fall into the atmosphere or until it hit something large enough to disintigrate it. It would be subject to all of Newtons and Keplers laws, as well, so if fired from orbit it would stay in orbit (unless it's speed plus the speed of the gun while in orbit exceeded the local escape velocity). At that point it would be in solar orbit.

It's velocity would be continually changing, however, because you must recall that velocity includes both speed and direction. Because it could not travel in a straight line it's velocity would change constantly. Given a circular orbit, however, it's speed would be constant.

Answer 6

If you are anywhere within this galaxy, it will stay in this galaxy and eventually be captured by a star or black hole. It could take longer than the age of the universe for this to happen, though.
If you're in between galaxies it will curve toward the closest one and eventually become a part of it.
Regardless of where you are, the bullet will keep going endlessly, its path constantly being curved by gravity of planets, stars, etc..

Answer 7

It would actually stop eventually, since even interstellar space isn't completely "empty." There are several hydrogen atoms per cubic centimeter in space, and they would add up to some "resistance" over a long enough period of time.

Of course, the bullet may also eventually impact a star or other celestial body due to gravity.

Answer 8

Law of inertia. The bullet would continue to travel at a constant velocity until acted upon by an outside force, such as gravity.

Answer 9

It would go into orbit of the sun. The velocity of a bullet is far less than escape velocity. The best you can hope for is a high-eccentricity orbit.

Answer 10

Unless acted upon by gravity, or it is slowed down by an encounter with the atmosphere of some planet, or it hits something, it should keep going forever.