Destiny Travelling Between Galaxies (How Much FTL?)

[Spimman]

Assuming that at some point in the future of SGU Destiny is going to travel to another galaxy (for discussion of exactly when please see other threads).

When Destiny travels to another galaxy do you think that will give us a better idea of how much Faster Than Light (FTL) Destiny is traveling?

For Example - The Milky Way (our home) and Andromeda (a close neighbor) are roughly 2 million light years apart. That being the case even if Destiny travelled to another galaxy that was really close to the current one, it would likely still be a minimum of 50 light years apart with 150 - 250 being a safer assumption unless told something to indicate otherwise.

All that being said, if we find out it takes 10 days to travel to another galaxy we could assume Destiny travels between 15 and 25 light years per day.

I'm no astronomer or math genius so please help me out and let's see what we could potentially learn about Destiny's speed.

[escyos]

one week Destiny will travel 50 light years in a day and next week it will take a week...lets stop these useless threads already based on things that WILL change

[Mike.]

Unless we get specifics like the distance of the void they're crossing (or the official names of the galaxies so we can look up how far they are) it won't be accurate. Galaxies are not evenly spread apart. You gave the example of Andromeda (2 ly), Pegasus is 3 ly away. For all we know Destiny is not even in the Local Supercluster anymore so the distances could be much, much larger.

If the galaxy it's currently in is part of a group it won't be too far from the next one, but if it's in a rogue galaxy in the middle of nowhere... We don't know.

[escyos]

Unless we get specifics like the distance of the void they're crossing (or the official names of the galaxies so we can look up how far they are) it won't be accurate. Galaxies are not evenly spread apart. You gave the example of Andromeda (2 ly), Pegasus is 3 ly away. For all we know Destiny is not even in the Local Supercluster anymore so the distances could be much, much larger.

If the galaxy it's currently in is part of a group it won't be too far from the next one, but if it's in a rogue galaxy in the middle of nowhere... We don't know.

we cant look them up. chances are there not there anymore

[Mike.]

We can, sort of. We know their location x time ago and with the speed we can calculate where they would be now.
Sure it's not that simple, you have to factor in variances in orbits, the gravitational pull of the neighboring stars, clusters, black holes, neutron stars, etc, the expansion of the universe.... it's complicated, but certainly doable.

[Jper]

Unless the writers/PTB provide us with an exact distance the Destiny traveled in a certain amount of time without stopping or slowing down or some other problem, and if they then confirm that Destiny has an average speed that is fairly constant, not depending on various factors, i.e. Energy availability, we will never know for sure, and crossing the void between two galaxies won't change that.

[Michael Jansky]

To original post:

Well, Andromeda is actually more like 2,5 m. LY away, but that's not that substantial here. The 50 LY, though, is way, way too close for a distance between galaxies. In fact, that's the distance to the "round the corner" neighbor stars in our own little arm of the Milky Way. (The "next door" neighbor is the 7 or so LY to Proxima Centauri, the closest star to us.)

Our galaxy is about a hundred thousand LY across, lower-average in size. Even the companion galaxies, like Pegasus (a companion of Andromeda), which are really close, are on the order of a quarter million LY (Pegasus-Andromeda is actually about 300 thousand LY).

So let's consider Pegasus-Andromeda a short intergalactic trip. To make any sort of time at all, say, two months, the ship would have to fly at a speed relative to realspace of about 1.8 million times the speed of light. Which is far faster than almost anything in any sci-fi (consider Star Trek, for example, where it would have taken Voyager about seventy years in maximum warp (about 9.975 warp factor, which no one knows exactly how much it is relative to realspace) just to get across the galaxy, presumably on the order of 70 thousand LY. Although the Destiny is still below the order of Asgard hyperdrive, presumably, as Thor was able to get to Earth from Ida galaxy (which is fictional, distance unknown) in about five minutes. Presuming Ida would be in the Local Group (the bunch of galaxies we're a part of), then 3 million LY could be a good estimate. Doing it in five minutes means a factor on the order of billions of times the speed of light.

The Asgard hyperdrive on the Daedalus-class cruisers takes about two weeks to Pegasus, which is also about 3 million LY distant, that would make for about a 75 million times the speed of light realspace equivalent.

But, as you see, the estimates vary widely for various ships, so in the end the best I can get of this is the order of millions of times the speed of light realspace equivalent for the Destiny, until we actually get some data on the show (if we do, that is).

[Spimman]

Well said Michael. I think you grasped the intent of my thought process and put some real numbers to them. I know without exact time and distances we can't figure out anything for certain, but we can likely get some better figures with any additional info.

Interesting facts all around!

[escyos]

How Much FTL?

ummm...8 FTLies

[Spimman]

As in how much Faster Than Light...it's in the original post, just trimmed down for the title. Didn't realize it was that complex.

[Jper]

The only problem I see with Michael's post is that he only takes into account the void for travel time and distance. There's a certain distance between Earth and the border of the MW for example... But maybe that's just too nit-picky.

[Spimman]

No, you have a good point.

Although I would think Destiny would leave a given galaxy from a star system relatively close to the edge and start in a new galaxy at a star system relatively close to the edge of it as well.

That being said, from a charted star system close to the edge to the same thing in the new galaxy could easily add quite a bit of distance!

[beafly]

So, what you're saying is... We're going to find out that Destiny's Engines are every bit as amazing as it's shields.

[SupremeLegate]

I think it will reach the edge of the current galaxy and jump to the next one via a wormhole dirve.

[Mike.]

I think it will reach the edge of the current galaxy and jump to the next one via a wormhole dirve.

That would be awesome.

I can already imagine it: Destiny drops out of FTL, the consoles suddenly become unresponsive and a strange program begins to run. Lights go out throughout the ship as non essential systems are shut down. The power conduits suddenly begin to draw increasing amounts of power from the ship's capacitors. More and more power is being routed through them yet nothing seems to be happening, warning lights appear about a possible overload, Rush bangs on the consoles helplessly, thinking that the ship is about to explode. People start asking Rush what's happening and if he did something. Rush panics and starts screaming to everyone to get out of his way.
All of the sudden the space around the ship begins to morph in a tunnel like shape and Destiny is pulled with astonishing speed. The people on the observation deck see the ship moving like it's traveling through a stargate's wormhole. 10 seconds later the ship exits and they see a whole new galaxy in front of them. The ship goes into FTL and all the systems return to normal. Everyone stares in awe for a few seconds.

/Enough fan fiction