Break out of the frame | Updated November 27, 2005 | Get the frame back

Stargates

General info | DHD | Physical structure | Wormholes | Dialing

General info

Eighth chevron | Safety protocols

Eighth chevron

To use an eighth chevron (which seems to be a galaxy code), a stargate needs 10 times as much power as it does normally (The Fifth Race)

top | General info

Safety protocols

The stargate system has safety protocols and protections built into it, to prevent connections that will do dangerous things, like dumping unstable isotopes into a primary. (Red Sky)

Another safety protocol is designed to keep energy signatures from mixing together one way the gate does this is to erase the energy buffer (the memory of energy signatures stored in its crystals) every time a new wormhole engages. (48 Hours)

top | General info

DHD

Dial Home Device (Ancient term unknown).

The standard device connected to a stargate, covered in two concentric circles of symbols, with a central crystal. Pushing the right symbols in the right sequence, then the central crystal, activates the stargate.

Without a DHD, travel is impossible unless a substitute is found (like the SGC's dialing computer), or unless the gate is hooked up to an external power source and the inside track is moved manually.

top | DHD

Physical structure

General | Pegasus galaxy

General

Made of naquadah, which has a decay rate (half life) of 150 years (used for dating) (A Hundred Days).

Weight: 64,000 pounds in the Milky Way galaxy. (Redemption, part 2) Unknown if the weight changed in the Pegasus galaxy.

The stargate consists of two rings.

The outer ring is stable, and holds nine chevrons (ordinarily, only seven are visible above the surface of whatever the stargate is being held upright in, but all nine exist). These chevrons light up one by one as the gate is dialled, as each is assigned a particular symbol from the inner ring. The final (top) chevron is for the point of origin, to complete the address.

The inner ring is covered in 36 symbols, and the ring itself moves, so that symbols can be aligned with chevrons as need be.

The gate element is a superconductor that absorbs energy in many forms. (Torment of Tantalus)

It converts and stores energy in reservoirs, making it possible to unlock and spin the mechanism manually when enough power is stored. (Torment of Tantalus)

Stargates can draw power directly from a source at the far end of the wormhole, making it impossible to disconnect the gate from the point of origin (A Matter of Time, Watergate).

Drawing power from the other end of the wormhole seems to negate the 38-minute window.

If a stargate's energy-absorption capacity is exceeded, the naquadah the gate is made of could become charged and explode, in a tremendous blast: 2,000-3,000 megatons, with environmental effects that could wipe out all life on a planet. (Redemption, part 1)

top | Physical structure

Wormholes

Wormhole basics | Wormhole physics

Wormhole basics

To keep a wormhole open, you have to send something through, even if it's just a radio wave. (Redemption, part 1)

Ordinarily, a wormhole will close within a short period if nothing enters it. (Redemption, part 1)

A wormhole can be maintained for 38 minutes. (There But for the Grace of God, Serpent's Song)

If the stargate is being powered by an alternate source, a wormhole can remain open longer (A Matter of Time, Watergate)

top | Wormholes

Wormhole physics:

First-season (Solitudes) theoretical explanation of the stargate wormhole: The gate is a giant superconductor that creates an artificial wormhole that transfers an energized matter stream in one direction along an extra-dimensional conduit.

A power overload can cause a malfunction, redirecting the energy to a second stargate on the same world.

This happened in Solitudes, when enemy fire against the stgargate on another planet caused the wormhole to jump to Earth's heretofore unknown second gate.

A stargate cannot activate when buried, but it can engage under water. (Watergate)

The wormhole only allows matter to travel one way, but radio signals can be transmitted both ways. (Watergate)

The gate has the ability to use density, molecular structure, and the force being exerted on the event horizon to determine whether something is trying to pass through. (Watergate)

The alpha gate supersedes the beta gate as long as the DHD is connected. If it is connected only when in use, it will prevent crossover to the beta gate. (Watergate)

The stargate on the receiving end of a wormhole temporarily stores the energy signature of each object passing through the wormhole before reforming the object, to be sure that it has all the necessary information. Reintegration of the object clears the signature, as does a new wormhole engaging (incoming or outgoing). (48 Hours)

Cutting off power to an outgoing wormhole prematurely can trap objects within the stargate system as energy, if the stargate on the receiving end doesn't have enough time to recreate the object. (48 Hours)

The signature is stored not in the energy itself, but is imprinted on the crystals in the receiving stargate, to be held in " memory" until the object is reformed. (48 Hours)

If an object is trapped, it is lost completely the next time a wormhole engages, clearing/erasing the " buffer" . The only way to reintegrate it is to remove the DHD's master control crystal before attaching the DHD. (48 Hours)

Removal of the master control crystal could result in massive uncontrolled energy flows -- and if stray current goes into the wrong conduit, the entire stargate could explode. (48 Hours)

top | Wormholes

Dialing

Addresses | Dialing devices | Stellar drift

Addresses

Most addresses consist of six points and a point of origin, but it's possible to use seven points and a point of origin (The Fifth Race). There's room on the stargate for nine chevrons, but no more than eight have ever been used.

The unique symbol on a gate is its point of origin.

The Ancients designed the gate addresses to be pronouncable -- each symbol is a syllable in the Ancients's language, so that each address consisted of six (or seven) syllables plus the point of origin. (Lost City, part 2)

Stargates can be used on a ship, but only if that ship is in orbit around a planet with a known address or point of origin, so the DHD can be properly dialed. A ship in transit can't use a stargate. (Within the Serpent's Grasp)

It's possible -- though not easy -- to dial every available stargate in the galaxy at the same time. Baal did this when Sam and Jacob needed a way to disperse an energy wave against every Replicator in the galaxy simultaneously. (Reckoning part 2)

top | Dialing

Dialing devices

The primary dialing device is the DHD. (multiple eps)

Can be dialed without a DHD or other dialing device -- all it needs is enough power hooked up to the ring, and to be moved manually. Two truck engines is sufficient. (1969)

A directed lightning strike will also work, although it risks overloading the gate mechanism. (Torment of Tantalus)

The stargate can emit up to 400 feedback signals during the dialing process (tied in to the system's safety protocols?) (48 Hours)

top | Dialing

Stellar drift

DHDs compensate for stellar drift without the operator needing to worry about it. (2001)

The gate network needs to undergo periodic correlative updates to compensate for stellar drift. Although no one at the SGC has ever witnessed such an update occuring, Sam believes that the gates dial each other automatically to transmit the new coordinates that apply to each address. (Avenger 2.0)

Without a DHD or some other way to compensate for stellar drift, Sam believes that a gate can only be dialed to other gates within a 300-light-year radius. (2001)

top | Dialing