All you ever wanted to know about The Iris and the Wormhole

[HirogenGater]

So not even the kawoosh can form (as said above)

Don't you still hear the sound f/x of the kawoosh with the iris closed? I'll have to go back and watch an episode where this happens.

[newtrekker]

Don't you still hear the sound f/x of the kawoosh with the iris closed? I'll have to go back and watch an episode where this happens.

Yes you can still hear the sound f/x of the kawoosh.

[newtrekker]

Thanks to whoever made this a sticky!!!! I was going to ask moderators the next time a thread with the same thing came up.

[VirtualCLD]

I don't think this is the most inconsistent cannon in the show. I think what bothered me the most in many of the early episodes is when the SGC received a GDO signal (either from SG-1 or someone else) and the Stargate was still in the process of being dialed from offworld and/or the wormhole wasn't even established yet.

The other thing that bothers me is how sometimes an off world activation is slow, sometimes it's instantaneous, and one time the inner track was moving while it was being dialed in from offworld (when in most cases it doesn't for an incoming wormhole).

However, hasn't the iris/kawoosh debate been explained several times?

Simply put, as many people said, the iris is too close to the Event Horizon (EH) to allow the destructive particles of the vortex to form. As a result there is no "splash" or "kawoosh." Simple as that. Now, in 100 Days, the Stargate was buried in molten rock laced with naquada WHILE the wormhole was still active. As a result, the rock cooled down and the gate shut down, leaving a thin space where the EH was. This was different than simply burying the gate, b/c a buried gate has matter in the way of the EH, preventing the EH from forming at all. This is why you can't get a lock on a buried gate.

Back to 100 Days, the thin space allowed for the formation of the EH so the SGC could still dial to it (just like the SGC has the iris close to the EH, but you can still dial it because the iris isn't IN the EH (see 48 Hours) ), but nothing could get through because the was no room for the destructive particles to form, nor any room for matter to re-integrate. So they took a page out of Sokar's Stargate Assault Manual and they fired a particle accelerator into the gate, melting the naquada laced rock on the other side. As the rock melted, it fell back into the EH, never to return (it was an incoming wormhole on the other planet).

Once enough rock had melted away and was disintegrated after falling into the EH, there was enough room for the destructive particles of the vortex to form. This vortex then disintegrated the remaining rock within its radius and allowed enough space to send something through.

[jonno]

However, hasn't the iris/kawoosh debate been explained several times?

Simply put, as many people said, the iris is too close to the Event Horizon (EH) to allow the destructive particles of the vortex to form. As a result there is no "splash" or "kawoosh." Simple as that. Now, in 100 Days, the Stargate was buried in molten rock laced with naquada WHILE the wormhole was still active. As a result, the rock cooled down and the gate shut down, leaving a thin space where the EH was. This was different than simply burying the gate, b/c a buried gate has matter in the way of the EH, preventing the EH from forming at all. This is why you can't get a lock on a buried gate.

Back to 100 Days, the thin space allowed for the formation of the EH so the SGC could still dial to it (just like the SGC has the iris close to the EH, but you can still dial it because the iris isn't IN the EH (see 48 Hours) ), but nothing could get through because the was no room for the destructive particles to form, nor any room for matter to re-integrate. So they took a page out of Sokar's Stargate Assault Manual and they fired a particle accelerator into the gate, melting the naquada laced rock on the other side. As the rock melted, it fell back into the EH, never to return (it was an incoming wormhole on the other planet).

Once enough rock had melted away and was disintegrated after falling into the EH, there was enough room for the destructive particles of the vortex to form. This vortex then disintegrated the remaining rock within its radius and allowed enough space to send something through.

Yes, it has. Part of the idea of this thread was to merge all the various old threads, and sticky it so as to reduce the number of times people start a thread about the same subject - it makes it easier to find.
-This isn't a new thread. It's an amalgamation of all the old ones.

Your explanation in my opinion is the correct one, and fits in with show canon

[Seastallion]

Just thought this explanation of mine earlier deserved a second go around. It helped a lot of folks before, so perhaps it can be of assistance again.

That is part of it yes. In addition to the previous post, let me add that the Event Horizon of the wormhole is itself not dangerous. Unless you try to enter the horizon from an incoming wormhole... that would be suicide because you'd have nowhere to reintegrate to. The danger comes from the inherent unstable nature of the vortex. The wormhole cannot transmit matter until the Event Horizon is firmly established, thus anything that is caught in it is immediately de-molecularized. Since there is no way for the object to reintergrate (just as the example above of an incoming wormhole), it is simply destroyed.

The Event Horizon is not that different from the soapy flat-bubble on a bubble blowing stick. The Event Horizon forms along the inner edge of the stargate as an 'anchor' of sorts. Normally, when it forms the gate is free and clear which allows the vortex to form (though the vortex isn't absolutely necessary). However, whenever the gate is completely blocked (as in buried) the wormhole will not connect. On the other hand, If the gate is covered close enough to where the Event Horizon forms, the vortex doesn't have a chance to form, so instead the Event Horizon simply 'washes' up over the covering to the inner rim of the gate.

As an example... imagine if I took a bubble blowing stick and held it facing downward to the ground and poured a soapy solution over it. The solution would partially drip through (like the vortex) the ring part of the bubble stick, but some of it would catch to form a soapy flat-bubble within the ring (like the Event Horizon) of the stick. On the other hand, if I took something flat, and covered the opening of the ring, none of the solution would drip through, but instead would immediately spread across the flat surface of the covering until it reached the inner rim of the bubble stick. I admit, this is a rather crude example, but it fits well enough.

[AKnightWhoSaysNi]

you gotta love how it took all of a month or so for the U.S airforce to figure out "if you dont want someone to barge in, build a door!" while the gould cant seem to figure out this concept 100% yet...

[Seastallion]

you gotta love how it took all of a month or so for the U.S airforce to figure out "if you dont want someone to barge in, build a door!" while the gould cant seem to figure out this concept 100% yet...

Actually, it didn't even take that long for the Air Force to figure it out. It took only one unwanted incursion (by Apophis) to compel them to do it. It was done within only a few days of the incident.

The Goa'uld eventually did start putting shields around their gates to prevent people from coming to the bases unwanted. Apophis eventually used one, that Sokar deafeted. Later Anubis started using one at his Kull warrior production facility.

The Goa'uld have been using energy shields, which are great as long as you have power. The SGC uses a Trinium/Titanium composite Iris that does not need a power source, and in the event of a power failure to the automated Iris control, it can be manually closed to prevent attacks through the gate.

[AKnightWhoSaysNi]

"manual controll" simply involves someone pressing a button in the gateroom wall as opposed to in the controll room. Im guessing that a self contained battery / motor is activated by that button because without power that button is going to work just as great as the one upstairs. Its not like some seargants run out from the doors with sticks and crank the iris down.

[Pasankoon]

My Understanding of Stargate Wormhole Physics is that energy particles (ie photons, gravitons and the other energies of weak and strong forces of nature) can travel both ways through a wormhole tunnel passing freely in and out of the event horizon but matter particles cannot embark on such a journey. For this reason all stargate event horisons are designed to dis-intergrate entering matter into energy signal form and transfer it directly to the buffer re-intergrate energy signals transferred to it from the buffer into matter form whilst leaving raw energy traversing back and forth through the horison untouched. The horison is also designed by the ancients to be 'smart' by utilising complex motion laws to determine what matter is actually trying to enter the event horizon as carter explained in 'watergate'.

All Buffer configerations alow it store energy signals recieved from the event horizon and transfer stored energy signals into the event horison. However the buffer configeration of an outgoing wormhole is designed to transmit energy signals that the gates computer systems recognise as complete whilst the buffer configeration of an incoming wormhole is designed to recieve energy signals recognised as matter energy signals and not touch them untill the gates computer system recognise them as complete. Matter cannot travel back through a wormole simply becaause the buffer is not designed to carry both these functions at the same time.

My understanding of how the iris works is that the stargate requires a constant amount of time to reitergrate energy signals into matter form (as carter explained in the pilot). Wormhole theory also dictates that anything entering a wormhole should exit at the exact same velocity. Therefore it must be the velocity of entering objects that determines the distance required for reintergration because distance=velocity x time. If this distance is in anyway obstructed the stargate is unable to reintergrate the matter. For matter particles entering at extremely high velocities such as from a particle acelerator the small distance between the horizon and the iris is sufficient to reitegration to take place because increasing velocity means decreasing distance. The reintegration distance is not obstructed so reitegration of high velocity matter particles take place.

However the iris should not be able to stop an unstable vortex from forming. The unstable vortex is not only a part in the process of establishing a connection but it is also there for a reason as carter explained in 48 hours. The unstable vortex is used as a safety mechanism to wipe the buffer clean whenever a new connection is made to prevent any messups caused by the left over incoming energy signatures interfering with new outgoing energy signals and vise versa. She stated the only way to help teal'k was to establish a wormhole without engaging an unstable vortex that wipes the buffer clean as she had seen it done before by Asguard and Nox stargate activation devices (wich possibly utilise other means to wipe the buffer for safety). If an iris could stop an unstable vortex froming she would have merely closed it and engaged a wormhole as well as the fact that every time the wormhole is engaged whith the Iris closed they are taking a risk based on their previous gate usage. The vortex is also an energy burst which is a part of the establishment process and is not composed of matter particles which require some sort of intergration so the reason the iris does not disintergrate once wormholes are established remains a mystery despite the fact that it was verbally stated by Carter (100 days)

[The Boz]

I remember you pasankoon. You have a lot of time on your hands man. GET A JOB

[Avatar28]

My post copied from another thread.

And the splash, when the wormhole forms, is the unstable part of the wormhole, stablising out.

I'm not so sure. Considering that the splash doesn't occur when some of the other races have used their hand controllers to activate the gate, I think it maybe more likely that the splash is a safety measure, basically there to clear out the area immediately in front of the gate. This would be especially important on the receiving end to make sure there's nothing in front of the gate that the person is going to reintegrate into. I think it works something like this.

The wormhole is established between the two gates. The wormhole itself is microscopic and can't be seen. That's why matter being sent through the gate is converted to energy and transmitted through. To create a wormhole capable of transmitting actual matter would take immense amounts of power and a huge wormhole (say something like the Ori supergate). Okay, so the wormhole connection is established. Each gate then activates the "event horizon" which is actually some sort of field that is responsible for scanning/breaking down matter in the case of the sending end and which reconstructs the matter on the receiving end. It has nothing to do with the wormhole at all. You can see this field forming, it's the foamy thing you see right before the splash and as the wormhole disappears. As the field is formed, the stargate generates the splash which blasts out and clears the area in front of the gate at both ends and also serves to wipe the buffer in the gate as well. The splash doesn't actually come from the wormhole but rather is generated just in front of it. This is why the iris isn't destroyed, it's position just in front of the scanning field puts it exactly where the splash forms and prevents it from occuring.

So, in summary:

• Wormhole is established between the two gates.
• Deconstruction/Reconstruction fields are activated.
• Splash is generated just in front of the fields at both ends to wipe the memory crystals and clear the areas in front of the gate from any debris or other objects.
• Object enters the wormhole, is scanned and converted into energy which is sent through the wormhole. The gate at the other end receives it and reconstructs the object.

Basically, it's EXACTLY like the ring transporters except that instead of being sent through space the energy (which you see travelling between rings) is sent through the wormhole to the other end. This also explains why the rings worked through the wormhole in Beachhead.

[Pasankoon]

That is basically what I said as well except I used the term 'Event Horizon' to describe the energy field you spoke of. I also agree that this energy feild has got nothing to do with the wormhole itself it is just a field connected to the buffer in order to transport matter. However in the case of the vortex I dont agree that it is formed just in front of the event-horizon/energy-field. I believe it is a part of the visible energy field it self wich in turn is directly connected to the buffer. I come to this conclusion because according to Carter the vortex is a safety mechanism designed to wipe the buffer and not nessesaraly what is in front of it (although it could be secondary puropose of the vortex I never thought of that before). In order for this to occur the vortex must be directly connected to the buffer and therefore must be a part of this energy-field/event-horizon. Another reason why this cannot be the case is that the vortex is still formed despite the fact that the Iris is closed. As stated in '48 hours' Carter could not work out a way to open the wormhole without generating a vortex to prevent Teal'c's energy signiture from being wiped. If this was the case she would have merely engage the gate with the Iris closed and open the Iris just like they would do to any autherised incomming traveller to let Teal'c through. Hence I am still unable to comprehend why the Iris doesn't disintergrate when wormhole is activated.

[skeezix]

My roommate has a different question. How/why does the gate decide how long to stay active when a team dials out? Is it timed? Does there have to be a physical presence near the gate? Sometimes the wormhole closes exactly after the last member comes flying through, but other times it doesn't close until they start walking away a little bit. He also seems to remember the wormhole closing on the sending end right after the last member goes through on some missions. I know its probably just done for convenience and dramatic effect but is there an explanation behind it? Its not something you really notice when watching, but after awhile my roommates and I have started wondering about it.

I've watched a lot of episodes on TV but only started watching the DVDs one by one in October. Currently my roommates and I are on Season 4 with the last episode we watched being "The Curse" so if this is explained in further episodes sorry. I think we have actually worked this out before, but we've gone back and forth so much now we are all confused.

[Pasankoon]

Basically in order to keep a Wormole open there has to be some form of energy travelling between the two gates in either direction. This could either be raw energy or energy signals sent by buffer transmitters. The gate is designed to automatically shut down the moment it detects that it is not being used. In most cases the SGC sends a radio signal through the gate to keep it open to allow its teams time to go out or come in and close it by stopping the signal. The gate will close at varing degrees in time depending on when this signal is shut off.