How long for the Prometheus to travel to Abydos with engines modified with Asgard technology?
A friend of mine who is a fanfic writer posed this question, "Stargate canon question giving me grief...How long would it take for the Prometheus to travel to Abydos with the engines modified with Asgard technology?"
Well here is my answer. I welcome any input on this.
In "Prometheus Unbound" (SG1 812), when the Prometheus was on route to Atlantis, they picked up a distress call. The technician tells them that the location is "Just over 50 light years off our designated route. We could be there in 20 minutes."
That would mean that they could travel 150 light years per hour.
50 ly * 60 min
------------------- = 150 ly/hour
20 min * 1 hour
In the series says that Atlantis is in the Pegasus Galaxy. In the real world there are two: Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy and Pegasus Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxy. In "The Return" (SGA 310), Landry states, "When traveling almost three million light-years, I'm not so sure there's such a thing as 'late.'" talking about the distance between the Pegasus and Milky Way galaxies, suggesting that the series takes place in the Pegasus Dwarf Irregular Galaxy, the real distance for this is estimated to be 3.0 ± 0.1 Mly (2,900,000 to 3,100,000 light years).
In "The Intruder" (SGA 202), Weir comments to Sheppard, "having to spend 18 days cooped up on this ship to get back" referring to traveling from Earth to Atlantis by the Daedalus. In "Moebius Part One" (SG1 819), Carter says, "The Daedalus. It has a few advantages over the Prometheus. The more advanced alien technologies were integrated into the original design rather than tacked on after the fact."
Now with the distance to the Pegasus being 3,000,000 and the trip taking 18 days, that calculates to 6944 light years per hour.
3000000 ly * 1 day
------------------------- = 6944.4444 ly / hour
18 days * 24 hours
That is a large difference from 150 light years per hour. Maybe the difference is that on the Prometheus the had the hyperdrive added on and the Daedalus is was designed with it. Or, in "Prometheus Unbound" (SG1 812), it was a short distance so they didn't use the hyperdrive.
I could not find a distance to Abydos. At http://forums.spacebattles.com/showthread.php?t=144248 someone guessed Abydos to be 300 light years but did not tell how they arrived at this. Earlier in the thread there was mention that stargate positions should be able to be calculated since the gate address used constellations to fix the position of the stargate. The use of 6 constellations to get a exact position is a terrible method to used. Constellations are actually 3 dimensions. We perceive them from Earth in 2D but in reality that stars may not be anywhere near each other. They would be different from different solar systems. What place in the constellation do you use for you initiating point.
Using 300 ly as the distance to Abydos it would be 2 hours on Prometheus or 2.592 minutes on Daedalus.
300 ly * 1 hour
------------------- = 2 hours on Prometheus
1 * 150 ly
300 ly * 18 days * 24 hours * 60 min
-------------------------------------------------- = 2.592 minutes on Daedalus
1 * 3000000 ly * 1 day * 1 hour
Now being fanfic, you can use anything that you want. Also keep in mind that if your story takes place after the episode "Ethon" (SG1 915), the Prometheus was destroyed in this episode.
(added the following - edit 4/27/2009)
Also, if the Abydonians are alive and living on Abydos, the fanfic must take place before "Full Circle" (SG1 622).
And if you want to talk about the original movie...
If the planet from the original "Stargate" movie is Abydos (the planet is never named), the one in the Kaliam galaxy, the one that Catherine states, "It's on the other side of the...known universe," we can assume it is billions of light years away. I have seen places on the internet that state that Kaliam from the Stargate Movie is billions of light years away but it is not in the actual movie or the official production notes. Well according to a 2004 article titled "New study super-sizes the universe" at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/5051818/ the width of the universe is estimated to be 156 billion light years.
For the Daedalus to go 1 billion light years, it would take 16.4 years.
1000000000 ly * 18 days * 1 year
-------------------------------------------- = 16.4271 years
1 * 3000000 ly * 365.25 days
For the Daedalus to go from one side of the universe to the other, it would take 2562.4 years.
156000000000 ly * 18 days * 1 year
----------------------------------------------- = 2562.3684 years = 2562 years 229.5 days
1 * 3000000 ly * 365.25 days
The Deadalus would never there even with the fact that it would be less than 2562 years because we are not at the edge of the universe. I could not find a number to use that shows where were are in relation to the edges of the universe. The calculation was how long it would take to get from one side of the universe to the other. Now, the quote about the Kaliam galaxy was, "It's on the other side of the...known universe." Now the calculated size of the Universe is 156 billion light years, but I would not call that the "known universe" I would think that was the observable universe which has a radius of 46.5 billion light years with us being in the center (meaning the the diameter of the observable universe is 93 billion light years). The time it would take to get to the edge of the observable universe is 764 years and that still would mean that they would never get there.
46500000000 ly * 18 days * 1 year
----------------------------------------------- = 763.8604 years = 763 years 314.25 days
1 * 3000000 ly * 365.25 days