What Would REAL Stargate Wormhole Travel Require? (Dial the Gate)

STARGATE imagines a world where ancient alien technology allows people to step from one planet to another through wormholes, without the need for any ship or hyperdrive. Could such a thing be possible – *theoretically* – in the real world? What do scientists think real-life wormholes might be like? And what would a person need to safely traverse one?

To answer this question "Dial the Gate" host David Read called upon Mika McKinnon, not only a brilliant scientist but also for many years the STARGATE franchise's official on-set science consultant. Mika is joined by none other than on-screen fictional genius David Hewlett, who played Dr. Rodney McKay on STARGATE ATLANTIS.

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"Stargate" and all related materials are owned by MGM Studios and MGM Television. The "Dial the Gate" theme is composed by Neal Acree.

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DIAL THE GATE is also on Twitter: @dial_the_gate

[kitfo]

She has a great way of presenting these things!

[MonochromeWench]

Negative energy density sounds like it could be related to ZPMs. Whether a relation is intended or not a link between the technology of Stargates and ZPMs would make story sense as they are obviously both technologies of the ancients

[hakan]

You guys are awesome! Its been a long long time since the show ended but this channel is still coming up wih content and honestly as a stargate and scıfı fan I love the community of this show.

[TiptronicSS]

I have learned so much more senseful science here than all the documenturies talking about space as if it's just pieceful spring garden. I had no idea the astronauts on the moon were in so much danger from solar flares.

Can we get Neill Degrass Tyson in ln this videochat next time? 😄 I'm sure he'd be happy to do it :)

[andrewmalinowski]

While I loved the discussion the two things I thought of while listening to this were causality and what Andre Bormeanis wrote in the "Star Trek Science Logs" about wormholes.
When Mika mentions changing "A and B" in causality it made me think of the causality paradox where the effect becomes the cause, which is sometimes seen in time-travel stories as the attempt to change things leads to the "effect" becoming the "cause.
Wormholes; 'The construction of an artificial wormhole would require a material capable of distorting the fabric of space to an extraordinary degree. Maintaining a space warp of this magnitude would not be an easy task. The tensile strength needed to prevent a wormhole from collapsing (that is to keep it "propped open") has been shown to be roughly ten to the seventeenth power (10^17--a one followed by seventeen zeroes!) times the density of the material used to construct it..' Star Trek Science Logs pg. 34 In the book it's stated that wormholes would essentially exist in short-term periods and likely only be noticed shortly after they'd "blinked out" of existence

[jamielondon]

Is it true that Atlantis was so expensive to film because some of the cast were method actors and insisted on filming at the original places in Pegasus galaxy?
Must have cost a fortune in stargate travel alone …

[Gatetraveller]

I like how Stargate has interesting solutions to real world problems regarding wormhole travel.

Too much energy required to bend space? No problem, send an energy tube through another plane of space, subspace, and make the tube microscopic.

Will eventually die due to radiation sickness inside the wormhole? No problem, de-construct the traveller into molecules so they fit through the tiny artificial wormhole and simultaneously protect them from the radiation/high speeds of travel.

This way a Stargate as seen on screen, could technically exist in some form sometime in the future.

[warlord]

I use to work in Area 51 for real in 1987 I am aware of a device that we actually have as a dimensional portal that the US Air Force has. But the only problem is it only works within the planetary gravity field of a planet which means you can transport anywhere within the gravity of the planet with no need of exit gate. The unfortunate side effects is it destroyed the communication neurons in the brain and partially screw up your brain because of the electrical field it produces.

[umbraelegios]

Never underestimate the power of plot armor.

[nicholasgiles]

She is now literally everyone's favourite actual scientist

[MarieLineGabriele]

David Hewlett my love !!!! McKay is my forever favorite
The scientist is awesome

[andrewmorales]

Question is it or would it ever be possible to create a real life star gate to travel to other planets some day

[-pe]

so taking this information and trying to apply it to the lore of the show, the stargate has a sort of protection detail that either shields the person and equipment they send through the gate or something about the transfer causes it to protect the people and their stuff going through the gate, maybe the gate temporarily causes each object including lifeforms to essentially go out of phase so that the radiation doesn't hurt or damage the person going through the gate.

essentially i just turned myself into one of the shows writers lol.

[superfamilyallosauridae]

You would need to at LEAST out-pizza the hut.

[-pe]

how about instead of sending humans to space, we send robots to space?

this is my genius idea for the day, but of course we need to make sure the robot is powered by something very powerful other than very limited power source like batteries.

or maybe the ship that the robots function within charge the robots batteries and the ship is the powerhouse, but the robot batteries would need to last for years and years and years before they need to be replaced, maybe we should just make them fusion powered, that will solve all the problems with power for a very long period of time.

[henrypuyi]

Doc can you talk to us about recurrent novas in stars? Isn't our star on a 12kyr recurrent nova cycle? Could be the answer to the Fermi paradox

[jordanedmond]

Travel through a true wormhole would require a shield as with Atlantis using the wormhole drive, though traveling through the stargate you're a part of the disassembled matter stream and reassembled on the other side, so you're not exposed to any radiation directly

[FatLittleButterfly]

so we have to somehow recreate the magnetic fields Earth emits on spaceship to shield against charged particles?

[dannyx]

Yo, Amazon says Stargate is leaving the MGM channel in two weeks! What's happening? Will it be on Prime now instead?

[nagash]

Where did they find all the Naquadah in the first place?