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Do we know if there is an upper limit on the range of a Stargate or given enough power (and a proper set of coordinates) one can reach anywhere? I remember a quote (probably by Sam) that the power grows exponentially by both the distance and the area of the horizon, but I don't remember any more than that.

By the way, my question is inspired from this one about the range of a Stargate and there is no overlap as I'm asking about the theoretical upper limit, not just the operational range. The theoretical upper limit could in principle also be limited by the laws of physics, eg the expansion of the Universe, or something else.

Hans Olo
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    We know that it can reach another galaxy with the 8 chevron address (or in the case of Atlantis a 9 chevron address), but there is also the episode where Anubis attempts to use the Earth's stargate against them to destroy the planet by feeding small amounts of energy into the gate that eventually force it to overload. Though that could jut be a flaw in the capacitor or whatever. In addition one gate can connect to them all given power and programming. I suspect that the only limit to establishing a connection is the amount of power it would require. No limit has ever really been seen. – Odin1806 Jun 25 '17 at 19:54
  • @Odin1806 also Atlantis's address requires "only" eight chevrons. Destiny's address is composed of nine. – MauganRa Aug 26 '17 at 14:15
  • You are correct. I mixed my universes. Thank you – Odin1806 Aug 27 '17 at 02:29

1 Answers1

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There doesn't appear to be an upper theoretical limit to the distance that a Stargate can travel, assuming you have a sufficiently powerful energy source (be that a ZPM or a planet with a "uniquely powerful core").

In Stargate Universe, the team travel through a Stargate to a point that represents a sizeable percentage of the width of the entire universe.

SCOTT: So those points are more stars?

WALLACE: No –- they're galaxies.

(Shocked, Scott walks over to Rush.)

SCOTT: Rush. Where the hell are we?

RUSH: Several billion light years from home.

Stargate Universe: Air, Part One.

Community
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Valorum
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    Interesting - the stargate bridge from the Milky Way to Pegasus does use a number of stargates - not sure what power sources they used for these particular gates, though (if any). We do see gates used without power attached a couple of times (though, either as accepting an incoming wormhole or possibly with residual charge like when they use the SGC stargate to escape from Thor's ship). – HorusKol Jun 26 '17 at 00:43
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    Given the vagueness of "several billion light years", they travelled somewhere between 5-10% of the Universe's diameter (currently estimated to be ~93 Billion light years across). I think I'm right in saying that the only reason they can't jump much further than that is simply because the Ancients' seed ships haven't reached that far yet. – DisturbedNeo Jun 26 '17 at 08:45
  • @DisturbedNeo If I remember right you are correct. I suspect that if they had the "correct address" they could have jumped to one of the seed ships as opposed to the ship they did jump to; but that would be as far as they could have possibly gone, given the seed ships are planting the furthest gates in "real time." – Odin1806 Jun 26 '17 at 13:31
  • @HorusKol - Somewhere in the early seasons they learned, that gates could be charged through an incoming wormhole, if its own powersource was compromised. So in theory they should be able to send energy through the gatebridge, making power consumption more linear over large distances. – Fourpaws Jun 27 '17 at 13:13
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    @HorusKol it's possible they just stuck a Naquadah reactor to each. They are quite abundant later on in the show... – MauganRa Aug 26 '17 at 14:19