The images of the galaxies across spectra. By harnessing the power of its star through a space-based system, an alien civilization could meet its growing energy requirements to push its society to the next level.Ī Type III civilization would have likely put Dyson spheres on more than just its host star, but on surrounding ones as well. These theoretical megastructures surround a star to collect its energy output. This civilization may employ its galaxy’s stars to harness energy using the hypothetical structure called a Dyson sphere. On the other hand, a Type III civilization is way past us. Scientists predict that it would take us 100 to 200 years to reach Type I. Instead, we’re at a measly 0.73 since we are still not able to harness all of the solar energy that reaches Earth. Type III civilization, the most advanced kind which can harness as much energy as the entire galaxyĪs of now, human civilization has not even achieved full Type I status.Type II civilization, one that consumes as much power at the scale of its entire star system (meaning its host star and the other planets that orbit it).Type I civilization, which uses the energy available to it on its planet.The scale has three types of civilizations: The Kardashev scale, developed by astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev in 1964, measures how far technologically advanced a hypothetical alien civilization is based on the amount of energy it consumes. But to understand what they were looking for, first we’ll break it down a little.Īcross the vast universe, the possibility of life forms varies dramatically from primitive bacteria-like microbes to hyper-advanced alien civilizations. Chen says he and his co-author took a sample of LoTSS in a hunt for unusual radio, hoping to narrow in on a Type III civilization. What’s a Kardashev Type III civilization?Ĭhen and co-author Michael Garrett looked at results from the LOFAR Two-metre Sky Survey (LoTSS), which is gradually capturing the entire northern sky in radio. ![]() The astronomers detailed their work in a study published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society. While it’s a long shot, those two may be precisely what Chen is looking for. Out of 21 galaxies, two outliers are so far unidentified. “Kardashev Type III civilization (K3) is a kind of very advanced civilization that is capable of fueling the energy from the whole host galaxy,” Chen tells Inverse.Ĭhen, a postdoctoral in National Astronomical Observatory of China, and her team scanned part of the Northern Sky to search for these hyper-advanced aliens. Since its inception it has led to hypothetical new energy consumption mechanisms, inspired generations of science fiction writers, and influenced thinking around our own future energy consumption.Hongying Chen is on a mission to find the most technologically advanced aliens out there. But the scale is more than just a practical tool. So anything that helps us narrow the search, or understand the target better, is certainly welcome. Over the past few decades huge effort has gone in to detecting such signals, some of which have been written about here on Astrobites (see here, here, here, and here). The Kardashev scale was intended to help direct searches for signals from intelligent beings. Just over 50 years ago, a Russian astrophysicist named Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev proposed a scale for ranking these hypothetical civilisations based on their energy consumption. But there is one commodity that most theorists agree any advanced civilisation will need in large quantities, and that’s energy. Since we only have one data point, our own little civilisation on our own little Earth, trying to pin down what extraterrestrial civilisations will look or behave like stretches the imagination, to put it mildly. Theorising about extraterrestrials is hard. Nikolai Semenovich Kardashev in the 1960s
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