Why does no one ever come through Earth's Stargate?

Question

It's been a few years since I've seen anything relating to the Stargate, but what I recall from the show is that the episodes go something like this:

Stargate team jumps through the gate to another world
The inhabitants of that world have a problem
???
Entertainment!

All well and good...but that gets me thinking, why doesn't anyone ever come through Earth's Stargate?

The Goa'uld could certainly benefit from a surprise attack in the middle of their base, especially since they have superior technology to Earthlings, and spaceships that could traverse the distance to invade should they render the Stargate inoperable - they have nothing to lose from an attempt.

But even if we don't include the Goa'uld, why don't other species ever cross through the gate in the same way humans constantly hop through to visit other worlds?

possible duplicate of Is there any indicator as to how many planets have Stargates? — calccrypto, Sep 04 '14 at 13:50
There's also the issue that Earth's gates have been buried and inoperable for thousands of years, so nobody would know they could dial Earth until SG-1 starts making headlines. — Travis Christian, Sep 04 '14 at 14:07
The series began with that exact situation. Apophis & his troops launched a surprise attack on the Cheyenne Mountain facility. It was because of this that the iris and IDC system was installed. Kind of like putting locks & a peephole on your door AFTER someone walks in and takes your stuff, but oh well. — Omegacron, Sep 04 '14 at 20:28
I'm at work and without time to go searching for references, but offhand I can think of a couple occasions where the SGC was invaded despite the iris, a couple where they were contacted by an unknown (one of these explicitly mentions how unlikely it is to randomly dial another gate at all), and several where they were contacted by an ally (usually the Tok'Ra) — Izkata, Sep 05 '14 at 16:21
Many have come through Earths stargate, from replicators to system lords, and Earths facility has almost been lost quite a few times. The "Iris" has been proven to be useless in modern Stargate lore many times. Hell Anubis even got around the iris without stepping on Earth — Sammaye, Sep 08 '14 at 10:57

Jeff · Accepted Answer · 2014-09-06T00:56:50.233

57

Short answer: they try.

Long answer: enter image description here

They can knock, but it doesn't do them much good.

Without a GDO, the Iris, a large shield millimeters beyond the event horizon that prevents the typical Ka-Woosh (Carter gives a throwaway explanation at one point) and will prevent the reintegration of matter. O'Neil describes it as 'bugs on a windshield'.

In the early episodes of season one, there's an episode where the gate activates off-world, no GDO is used, and a series of bangs is heard. Teal'c and Jackson are watching the gate, discussing what Apophis might be sending through.

Daniel doesn't like the idea that lots of Jaffa just splattered against the Iris, but he likes being invaded a lot less.

The iris is installed while SG-1 is away for the first time (before they even meet Teal'c) and is later replaced by an even stronger version.

Atlantis had a similar thing, but it was a transparent force-field. Unauthorized travelers splattered, but were just flashes of light.

Edit: In response to other species -

Other humans do try to use the gate from time to time. Most use it to travel between a few known addresses (often for trade). Of those who try random addresses, well, they have a very low chance of finding Earth.

It did happen once, in the episode called 'The Other Side'. The people who traveled through the Stargate didn't make it...but the radio call to see if they survived did, and the SGC warned them against sending anyone else through. They established friendly contact, and SG-1 went to visit them. It ended...badly.

Edit: As Matt pointed out in the comments, the Iris prevents the Kawoosh, it doesn't close after it.

edited Sep 06 '14 at 00:56

answered Sep 04 '14 at 13:57

Jeff

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Also because its an amusing piece of trivia GDO stands for "Garage Door Opener". :) – Chris Sep 04 '14 at 15:34
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It's also worth noting that there were several occasions on which people did come through the gate, including villains and including (initially) successful attacks on the SGC. – Brian S Sep 04 '14 at 16:26
@BrianS: True. The Tollan can walk straight through with their phasing abilities, the aliens from 'Foothold' got in somehow (not shown), and a few others have been able to project things into/through the iris (including Anubis who tried to blow up the stargate with subatomic particles). – Jeff Sep 04 '14 at 17:25
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Im pretty sure it closes before the Ka-Woosh. – Matt Sep 05 '14 at 03:55
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@Matt - Agreed. I remember Sam Carter throwing a one-liner at one point about how 'the IRIS prevents the splashout effect because it's too close to the event horizon' – Robotnik Sep 05 '14 at 05:13
@Matt: If you want it to. Sometimes they closed the iris after the wormhole was established. Totally depends on the operation policy. – Lightness Races in Orbit Sep 05 '14 at 17:13
@LightnessRacesinOrbit If they're too late with it, they have no choice but to wait. The kawoosh would vaporize the iris if it wasn't completely closed by the time the kawoosh started – Izkata Sep 06 '14 at 02:17
@Izkata: I don't see why. – Lightness Races in Orbit Sep 06 '14 at 03:33
@LightnessRacesinOrbit: Because anything touching a kawoosh is vaporized. If it starts going and the iris is open, the iris would be destroyed if they tried closing it. This is why they try to mostly keep the iris closed, even if the gate is inactive. – Jeff Sep 06 '14 at 12:41
@Jeff: Huh? The parts of the iris that are in front of the kawoosh at any point in time t1 are still only a few microns from the event horizon*, and will not be vapourized for the same reason that the central area of the iris is not vapourized at t2 when more of it covers the kawoosh. At worst you might see some relatively minor damage to the edges of the iris where the middle part of the kawoosh has flailed around a little on its way back into the event horizon through the iris gap. – Lightness Races in Orbit Sep 06 '14 at 14:14
This is where the iris gets its "power", not from some magic from being fully closed!

Lightness Races in Orbit

Sep 06 '14 at 14:17

@LightnessRacesinOrbit: Not even a little. They explain it on the show, and it was asked on this site: the iris prevents the kawoosh, it isn't immune to it. – Jeff Sep 06 '14 at 21:19

@Jeff: There is no distinction. The iris is immune to the kawoosh because it prevents (or, rather, suppresses) it. The accepted answer on the very question you link to tells us that there is no difference between the manner in which incoming matter is suppressed by the iris, and the manner in which the vortex is suppressed by the iris. So, my argument is 100% supported by your link. The corrolary is that whether the iris is 100% closed or not is completely irrelevant: the areas of the event horizon covered by the iris will have the kawoosh suppressed at that point. – Lightness Races in Orbit Sep 06 '14 at 21:38

Wait, so I guess I somehow missed a very important part here - if someone from the other side tries to come through the SG while the iris is up, they are killed? – Oct 31 '14 at 18:45

@Michael: Yup. It should be painless, as they don't even get to fully reintegrate (which means, no nerves to feel pain) but they pop like bugs on a windshield. – Jeff Nov 01 '14 at 05:27

score 6 · Answer 2 · answered Sep 04 '14 at 14:02

First, the is a protective shield, the Iris, as Calccrypto noted in one of the comments. Probably in case of a serious attack that could penetrate the Iris, the Stargate itself could be destroyed, making attacks through it futile (although could be a good way to leave the SG team without the resource of their Stargate).

Second, many of inhabitants of worlds with Stargates seem to be unable or unwilling to use them. So although there's many Stargates, there are not that many travelers or "traffic". Actually, many of the visited worlds seem to host cultures less advanced that Earth's, unaware of other worlds or the possibilities of the Stargate.

Third, I seem to remember from one episode that there is actually a second Stargate on Earth, much older and buried in one of the pole's ice. This could mean that most of those able to use a Stargate lost memories of Earth through huge spans of time.

The Antarctic gate was Earths original gate, buried after the Atlanteans left, so there would have been a long period of time where Earth would have been unreachable. Its quite possible that any gate travellers would have made note to do use the gate during this time and shared that knowledge. Earth didn't get it's second gate until Ra brought one to Earth to make slaves of the people. — Amicable, Sep 04 '14 at 16:23
Good point about "unable or unwilling". The implication is that the Earth Stargates were forgotten for thousands of years, at least from the time of the Ancient Egyptians ~2,000 BC until the early 20th century. Knowledge of such devices, to the extent that such still circulated, had passed into mythology and legend rather than science or engineering. — Robert Columbia, Feb 26 '19 at 13:28

Why does no one ever come through Earth's Stargate?

2 Answers2