Where the Pegasus Galaxy is...

[Krendoshazin]

A ZPM is capable of generating immense amounts of energy by utilizing zero point energy which derives from a phenomenon known as the quantum foam (subatomic wormholes opening and closing constantly in and out of subspace). A ZPM contains an artificially created region of spacetime from which this power is drawn. Since this process is thermodynamically irreversible, every ZPM (if used) will eventually reach maximum entropy, at which point it is depleted and can no longer provide power.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZPM

[Quakerbone]

where is the kaleam galaxy mentioned in the movie

You never heard "Kaleam galaxy", the Abydos gate has the same symbols as Earth, and Jack's last name is spelled with two L's.

This is a movie magic alteration. A number of critical technical issues were changed with the series, including the distance of Abydos, the gate symbols, and a few movie magics things about everyone on another planet speaking perfect English, when it took the movie-Jackson a decade's worth of lingual studies and nothing short of genius to speak ancient Egyptian.

[freyr's mother]

Here's a fun fact: Our Local Galactic Group is comprised of about 36 galaxies.

[newtrekker]

Here's a fun fact: Our Local Galactic Group is comprised of about 36 galaxies.

That's alot of galaxies. No wonder why the Ancients didn't leave the local group.

[Replicator Fifth]

Yes, its real. The local group is, funnily enough , a little local group of galaxies that are relatively close to each other and are gravitationally bound in the Universe.

The MilkyWay, and the Andromeda Galaxy are in the local group among others, and infact, the Milkyway and Andromeda are heading straight for each other and will collide (well, more like pass straight through each other). Okay, i'm an astronomy geek, it shows. Sorry

This, of course, contradicts a few things. Apparently the Pegasus Galaxy is really really far away, much further than Ida, and that is why a ZPM was required to generate all the extra power to go to Pegasus, while a liquid naqueda generator was all that was required to go to Ida to contact the Asguard.

But it looks like the Asguard galaxy is further. Pegasus is just a dwarf galaxy orbiting Andromeda, which is not very far away at all as galaxies go! Its one of the closest!

I also liked in the Fifth Race (i recently rewatched it) when they dialed the 8 chevron address for the first time... and how they were all looking at each other going "what the hell?"... the 8th chevron locked, and there was actually a several second pause before the wormhole opened... it gave the feeling that the stargate really did open to a place very very far way, it even took 2 to 3x as long for the wormhole to open after locking the last chevron.

Yet, in Atlantis, when the SGC dialed the 8 chevron atlantis address, the wormhole opened rather quickly... it felt like the same length of time it always took.

Also when the animation appeared, it showed jack going through the wormhole animation for a long long time... and it was alot shorter for the atlantis one.

It really felt like they weren't dialing an address far away when they dialed Atlantis in Pegasus, yet when they dialed (Othalla?) in the Ida Galaxy, it felt like it was **ALOT** further.

Yet, that pathetic little liquid naqueda generator they built was all they needed. And they did it again, in that alternate reality episode (forget the name). Why can't they just make another one to call up Atlantis again? Its not even mentioned and rejected... they just say "this is a one way shot and we have no other choice". Why?????????????

funny, I was googling pictures of the real Pegasis Galaxy and came across this. yes the contradictions are apparent to any science geek... but, don't let it bother you too much, it was a fun show.

[thekillman]

one asgard galaxy was 4 million lightyears away *enemies*

[kymeric]

My thoughts again on this:

I feel the writers are giving fictional properties to a galaxy that exists in the real universe. There's been two comments on the distance of the galaxy; Jackson mentioned the local group, McKay mentioned a distance of 300 million lightyears. I also believe that Pegasus will be considered a greater distance from home compared to Ida. It will explain why a staff weapon's energy source can power the gate to Ida, but a ZPM is needed for Atlantis.

Assume we're talking the same galaxy...
Pegasus is a very old, and very small dwarf galaxy, you wonder why the Ancients just didn't head to Andromeda, a spiral galaxy like our own. (Other than the galaxy being the title of another show.) Heh... I'm stubborn.

I bet they did and its inhabited with humans and its own gate network and problems

[Infinite-Possibilities]

McKay mentioned the Pegasus Galaxy as being 3 hundred million light-years distant, but I think that was just an error on his part. Occasionally characters will misspeak. The Pegasus galaxies was mentioned as 3 million light-years distant every other time. And I think that if it was 300,000,000 Light-years away it would not longer be in the Local Group, which he already said it is.

[lordofseas]

McKay mentioned the Pegasus Galaxy as being 3 hundred million light-years distant, but I think that was just an error on his part. Occasionally characters will misspeak. The Pegasus galaxies was mentioned as 3 million light-years distant every other time. And I think that if it was 300,000,000 Light-years away it would not longer be in the Local Group, which he already said it is.

But..but..but..McKay is ALWAYS right!

[thekillman]

where did he say THAT?

[Aer'ki]

I looked into this before, and the 'Pegasus' in reality can't be the 'Pegasus' in stargate. The gate bridge and visuals from the series make them very close together.

Best candidate is the Small Magellanic Cloud...and 'Pegasus' is the Ancient name for the galaxy, not ours.

[Freekzilla]

I think you guys are forgetting about one thing.

When Jack hooked up the Naquada thingy to power the stargate to get to the Ida galaxy and to the Asgard, he hooked it up ALONG WITH the power being supplied by the normal gate operations. So, that little generator wasn't supplying the entire amount of power, it just gave it the big boost it needed.

Think of it this way, you can have 2 batteries with the same total amount of power, one releases the energy slowly over time, and the other releases it more or less all at once. I suspect that the liquid naquada itself was designed to release it slowly, but the device Jack made adapted it so it would release all at once. And in the process, that probably burned out a few of the components of that device. Hense the reason they couldn't get it to work again.

Another thing is, we know from McKay that once a gate is connected, it can draw power from the gate on the other side. It is reasonable to assume Jack knew that the asgard gate would be able to supply any extra power once it was connected, therefore he only needed to get the connection going. The atlantis gate on the other hand, didn't have the power reserves to perform this function. Therefore, a ZPM was needed to supply ALL of the power.

[strikeviperMKII]

I looked into this before, and the 'Pegasus' in reality can't be the 'Pegasus' in stargate. The gate bridge and visuals from the series make them very close together.

Best candidate is the Small Magellanic Cloud...and 'Pegasus' is the Ancient name for the galaxy, not ours.

I doubt very much that the image in that episode was even close be being to scale, because if it were, the 'gate shown would be larger than our entire solar system...a lot larger. But they do show Pegasus to be a spiral galaxy, just like the Milky Way, so it can't be the SMC or the actual Pegasus galaxy, which is irregular.

[strikeviperMKII]

Q About ZPM's?!

Answer me this, I may of missed it but I doubt it. The ZPM. if it gets it energy form subspace. Then how come it runs out of charge. Subspace as we all know if meant to be a super realm of its own which I guess is as big as the universe anyway. So how comes it runs out of power? does the appature that opens a hole into subspace get smaller the more power it uses until the hole is closed.

Also, is a ZPM more powerful (when fully charged) than a sun!?

Cliff

You can take a hint from the first episode of Atlantis. McKay says '...and the third is approaching maximum entropy.' Also, he says in a later episode that a ZPM was like 'a universe in a bottle'. To me that says that the ZPM's only have a certain amount of energy in them to begin with. How much is probably determined by how they are made, but once you use up that energy, there's no way to get it back. Yes, ZPM's draw energy from subspace, but only the subspace within its own little universe. If you try to draw energy from the subspace in our universe, as explained in the series, bad things happen.

[Ancientechexpert]

I believe it was once said that the ZPM draws power from an isolated (key word being "isolated") section of sub-space (either it creates that section, or it isolates an already existing section, I'm not sure). I have a theory about why they isolate the section it draws power from. My theory is that because there are many forms of subspace (the Stargate, and the various dimensions of hyperspace used by the many FTL-capable races) that interact, like the Atero device disrupts Wraith hyperspace, but also destroys stargates, the Ancients were afraid that drawing power from an unlimited subspacial dimension could have dangerous side effects. That's my theory.