The Stargate

In 1998 Catherine, now a 70 year old recruits Dr Daniel Jackson to activate it.

The original translation, Doorway to Heaven is retranslated by Dr Jackson who reveals it to be "stargate", thus naming it. On other planets it is often named the Chapp'ai, the Goua'ld, Jaffa and Abydonians amongst others call it this. Daniel realized that the glyphs, 37 of them, represent contellations. He also figured out that the 7th glyph represented the point of origin. Each planet has their own glyph representing the point of origin. Daniel had done what noone had been able to do in 70 years.

The Earth has 2 stargate, one is currently in the possesion of the Russians, the other is held by the Americans. The American one is Cheyenne Mountain Complex. This is the Stargate Command(SGC). It is commanded by General Hammond, a bald fat man who despite a long military career is not one of those tight-assed emotionless officers who have forgotten what it's like to not be a soldier. The Giza stargate was originally in the possesion of the Americans

The stargate is a circle about 20 feet in diameter although a few vary in size and color as their creators tastes differ. For example the stargate currently on Tollana is more whitish than most others and is thinner and smaller. It may have been made by the Nox or the Tollan, it is not made clear which. Unlike other Stargates it is made of a Trinium alloy.

The Stargates were invented by a race called The Ancients The Ancients have "left" this part of the galaxy. What this means has yet to be said. The Ancients may have transcended into beings of energy or may simply have left this galaxy or simply died out. The gate is grey and is made of the element Naquadah. However the gate doesn't need to be made of Naquadah. Orlan, one of the "Others" built a stargate, using only the materials in Major Carter's house-including her toaster and a lot of superconducting wires. The gate he built could only be used once, or for a short period of time to dial one address. For more info on Naquadah click here. The stargate is very durable and can withstand even a black hole or a naquadah bomb turning a planet into a giant fireball. It appears to be immune to most weathering, however if it explodes it could wipe ouy the whole of Colorado and the resulting fallout could wipe out all life on earth. The Stargate has 2 rings, an outer stationary ring and an inner free-spinning ring with the 37 glyphs on it. The outer ring has 9 chevrons, triangular devices placed every 40 degrees. These lock in once an address has dialed, they glow after locking in. The first 6 are used to pinpoint a destination between the 6 constellations that the glyphs represent and the 7th is a point of origin.

Point A is the 7th chevron-the point of origin, where you currently are, point B is the location of the stargate you wish to go to.

The eighth has only ever been used once and it seems to add an extra area code.This give a giant boost to the number of possible gate combinations, with just 7 chevrons there are 1673844480 combinations, with this extra area code the possiblities are endless. SG1 has yet to find out the purpose of the 9th chevron. This may be used for time travel but will use a lot of extra power. Simply dialing with the extra 8th chevron was not possible with the Earth's present reactor. Col. O'Neill had to invent a device to add extra power with the information he got from the Ancients information time capsule. Normally with most stargates a DHD is around but the Earth's DHD was missing during the dig in 1928, this was because the Germans had it and had given it to the Russians later. The DHD is a small brown/black device. In the middle is a large red button. The button is surrounded by 37 smaller buttons that each have a different constellation on them, these are the glyphs. The large button is pressed after 6 glyphs and the point of origin glyph have been pressed. If the DHD is missing the SG teams have a portable naquadah reactor they can use to active the stargate.The DHD also responds to multiple dialing protocols and will not dial if there is an error or a protocol preventing the lock. The Earth's dialing computer sends electronic impulses and often ignores or overrides these protocols.

Once the stargate has dialed to another gate an unstable vortex will form, nicknamed the "kawoosh" by the shows producers. Anything in it's path will be destroyed.

For more information on the kawoosh's actual creation go here The Stargates on Earth have a device protecting them. This device is named the iris as it closes like the iris of your eye.. This iris is made of Trinium. The original titanium iris was destroyed by a black hole. On Earth when they wish to come back they send a signal using a GDO, each SG team has their own frequency. Their allies such as the Tok'Ra also have one. The SG teams and perhaps their allies, can also send a code red and possibly other signals so the SGC can prepare to close the iris after their arrival. There is a palm scanner installed to stop aliens such as the Re'Tu. The iris is just 10 micrometers from the event horizon so anything that hits the iris will bounce back and be lost forever. It still allows the gate to activate. The reason that it isn't destroyed by the kawoosh each time the stargate activates is because the iris is close enough to stop it from forming as Major Carter stated in the episode titled "100 days." Apparently Apophis had a device similar to the Earth's iris on his stargate. Sokhar used a high-density particle acceleratorr to destroy our iris, it would have taken a long time as most of the particles sent through would not have actually reintergrated. He would also have to redial every 38 minutes as that is the longest time two stargates will remain connected without disconnecting, unless matter is in transit, until then the Stargate will remain connected for a set period of time (not yet specified) before checking if matter is still in transit.

The Stargate works by transforming matter that goes through into energy then transferring that energy through a subspace wormhole to another stargate which turns the energy back into matter. Just before the energy is turned back into matter it is held in a memory buffer so it makes sure the energy pattern is complete. Unfortunately if matter is still in transit or just before reintergration inside the buffer and the wormhole is prematurely cut, as in Season 5's "48 hours" then the energy pattern will be kept but will not reintergrate and destroyed if the Stargate attempts to dial again. The memory buffer consists of crystals so they won't retain their energy patterns permanently, however how long a pattern will stay there has yet to be discovered, as many energy patterns come and go. It might even be possible a tiny bit of Apophis lurks in our stargate! While there is an incoming wormhole, the power retained by the Stargate's capacitors fluctuates by about 0.1 percent.

Burying the gate is a common, effective way of stopping the gate from being reactivated. For liquids and gases we presume it is just pushed out of the way. In watergate the gate seemed to be underwater but was actually bathed in microscopic sentinent beings, this is the only instance where the gate activates whilst surrounded by liquid.

Once the wormhole is stable it will allow matter to travel between them. It will disintergrate the matter into molecules reintergrating them on the other side. Objects coming out the other side feel a slight freezing sensation and are covered in a thin layer of ice. The process leaves people partially disoriented, as the sense of balance is completely obliterated. Some side affects of using the Stargate include: mild dizziness to active nausea and sometimes unconsciousness. MRI scans are performed by Dr Fraiser after each mission. When Daniel went insane due to Machello's anti-Gou'ld technology it was suggested that gate travel caused it, (although it was untrue).