In physics, the term wormhole generally indicates the "tunnel" created between two active Stargates after one of them successfully dials the other, enabling faster-than-light travel in one direction.
Overview[]
A wormhole is a subspace bridge created between 2 locations that allow matter to be transferred through one end to the other. Although not traveling at a higher speed, a wormhole reduces the distance necessary to reach a given location within itself (similar to Hyperspace but a lot more powerful.) To put wormholes into relative place, the time necessary for a Zero Point Module-powered Asgard hyperdrive to reach Lantea in the Pegasus Galaxy from Earth is 4 days (however, a fully powered Asgard warship would manage such trip in matter of hours), if transferred through a wormhole it is less than 20 seconds, and to reach closer planets it is around 3 seconds. Wormholes are a vacuum of matter, like space itself, and the temperature of one is close to absolute zero (which is −273.15 degrees Celsius).
The two only known methods of creating stable wormholes are with an Ancient Stargate and with the Wormhole drive installed in Atlantis. A device which when a given address is inputted, connects to that gate over a subspace link and quickly exchanges precise locational details then establishes a stable wormhole between them. Wormholes are only one-way, and must be entered through the dialing gate.
The Stargate creates its own event horizon just in front of the wormhole and dematerializes any object attempting to pass through it so it is not damaged or killed by the deadly low temperatures. It then fires it through the wormhole and the other gate and rematerializes it at its event horizon. If a barrier is placed just in front of the event horizon (3 nm) then the matter is unable to rematerialize and is destroyed. Wormholes can also be created by starships and held open from the inside, as is the case with the Ancient Wormhole drive. If an object or somebody walks through the incoming wormhole, it will be destroyed, or pulled back, or the receiving gates event horizon will be like a wall, as wormholes are one-way travel only, except for certain forms of energy, including radio waves.
If a wormhole bisects a solar flare, the magnetic disturbances can create a time travel effect on a wormhole passing through it based on the intensity and location. (SG1: "1969", "2010") (SGA: "The Last Man") (SGU: "Twin Destinies") (Stargate: Continuum)
There have also been times when a wormhole has crossed into an alternate universe, but this was intended, and may not occur naturally. (SG1: "Ripple Effect")
Wormholes can also pickup and deposit matter from places, although the receiving gate can remove this excess matter. On one occasion, however, a superheavy material was picked up by the wormhole and deposited into a passing sun, causing it to shift to infra-red and stopping plants from photosynthesizing on the nearby planet. The Ancients did, however, put in place effective safety protocols in their Stargates that prevent wormholes being formed if there is a high risk of any of the above happening. (SG1: "Red Sky")
If a wormhole is connected to a planet near the event horizon of a black hole, the black hole's time dilation and extreme gravity will translate through the wormhole and affect the connected planet. The Stargate is incapable of being shut down at that time and the only known way to deactivate such a wormhole is to force a jump to another planet. (SG1: "A Matter of Time")
Behind the scenes[]
- Seasons 1-8 of Stargate SG-1 used an older wormhole CGI effect, carried over from Stargate the movie. Seasons 9-10 used a new version of the effect retrofitted from Stargate: Atlantis; the difference between them is that the effect appears green in Atlantis, but blue in SG-1 and white in Universe.
- In the original feature film, the visual effect was twenty-one seconds long, featuring the swirl of blue light followed by a flash of white light and several stars. There would then be two strips of blue light that twist and turn as yellow lights moved on the screen before a final flash of white light. The SG-1 television series merely showed the swirl of blue colours (as seen in the picture above) or the strips of two blue lights and the moving yellow lights, and only lasted a few seconds. This was most likely due to save time within the episodes. However, the full scene was shown in "Children of the Gods" and a similar effect seen in "The Fifth Race". However the only thing different is the noise of the wormhole; in the original movie, the noise sounded like wind rushing, whereby in the SG1 television series, the noise had a screeching like sound.
See also[]
- Wormhole physics
- Wormhole X-Treme!, a security breach turned method of plausible deniability for the SGC
- introduced in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Wormhole X-Treme!"
External links[]
- GateWorld's article on Wormhole in The Stargate Omnipedia
- Wormhole on Wikipedia