The Kardashev scale is a method of
measuring a civilization’s level of
technological advancement, based on the
amount of energy a civilization is able to
utilize. [1] The scale has three designated
categories called Type I , II , and III . A Type I
civilization uses only resources available on
its home planet, Type II harnesses all
needed energy from its local star, and
Type III of its galaxy. [2] The scale is only
hypothetical, but it puts energy
consumption in a cosmic perspective. It was
first proposed in 1964 by the Soviet
astronomer Nikolai Kardashev . Various
extensions of the scale have been
proposed since, from a wider range of
power levels (types 0, IV and V) to the use
of metrics other than pure power.
Wikipedia
A star, named KIC 8462852, has been found
with a highly curious transit signal. In a paper
submitted to the journal Monthly Notices of
the Royal Astronomical Society , astronomers,
including citizen scientists from the Planet
Hunters crowdsourcing program, report:
“Over the duration of the Kepler mission, KIC
8462852 was observed to undergo irregularly
shaped, aperiodic dips in flux down to below
the 20 percent level.”
The research paper is thorough, describing
the phenomenon, pointing out that this star is
unique - we’ve seen nothing like it. Kepler has
collected data on this star steadily for four
years. It’s not instrumental error. Kepler isn’t
seeing things; the signal is real.
“We’d never seen anything like this star,”
Tabetha Boyajian, a postdoctorate researcher
at Yale University and lead author, told The
Atlantic . “It was really weird. We thought it
might be bad data or movement on the
spacecraft, but everything checked out.”
The Planet Hunters volunteers are depended
on to seek out transits in Kepler’s stars in the
direction of the constellation Cygnus. This is
a huge quantity of data, from over 150,000
stars in Kepler’s original field of view, and
you can’t beat the human eye when
identifying a true dip in starlight brightness.
The Planet Hunters described KIC 8462852 as
“bizarre,” “interesting” and a “giant transit.”
They’re not wrong.