What is the Kardashev scale?
Last week, a blip of excitement pulsed through those tuned into the search for alien life. Russian astronomers reported a strange signal that appeared to originate from a solar star system, HD164595, about 94 light years away. Astronomy websites wondered whether this was from an alien civilization and if so, where it ranked on the Kardashev scale. At its coarsest, this scale — named after Soviet astronomer Nikolai Kardashev — rates the technological advancement of a civilization. A ‘type 1’ civilization on the Kardashev scale is equipped to harness the energy available to it from its sun, a ‘type 2’ strong enough to harness all of its star’s energy, and a ‘type 3’ powerful enough to capture all the energy from its galaxy. Suffice to say, us earthlings (a ‘type 0’ civilization) wouldn’t stand a chance even against a hostile ‘type 1’ civilization. That’s a relief, because the ‘alien’ signal finally turned out to be from a secret Russian military satellite.
