Last year a star was discovered which seemed to dim on and off for no reason. It was said this was not being caused by orbiting bodies and this caused quite a stir. The space community, those who are interested in space and planets thought if it wasn’t a planet orbiting that star it must be something artificial. Years ago a Russian scientist proposed different capabilities for different levels of civilizations we might come upon in space. This is called the Kardashev scale. Nicolai Kardashev was a Russian astrophysicist. The scale depends on how much energy a civilization can produce. The scale went this way:
Type 0 – a civilization which gets energy from raw materials such as organic based wood, coal and oil. He said such a civilization would use chemical rockets and basically be stuck on its planet and this would be us right now.
Type 1 – They would be more advanced than us and could harness the entire energy output of their world.
Type 2 – This is a stellar civilization. This civilization would be a few thousand years ahead of us and would be more evolved than we are. They would be able to harness all the energy of their star. I imagine they would be able to travel vast distances through space.
Type 3 – This is a galactic culture. They would be able to harness all the energy their galaxy puts out. The guess is they would be somewhere between 100,000 and 1,000,000 years more advanced than us. They would be able to travel across interstellar space and colonize the galaxy.
Type 4 – This would be a universal civilization. This civilization would span the entire universe. The power of all the suns they encounter would be theirs. They would build superhuman projects and could change the structure of space time and may even have achieved immortality. It may be that only incorporeal beings could reach this level.
Type 5 – Multiverse Civilization. A civilization which could enter other universes. They would be capable of jumping between multiverses even though the laws of physics are different in each one.
In case you wonder what this has to do with the star dimming, many believe the reason is a Dyson Sphere which was built by a civilization to control the energy from that star is orbiting it. If there is a civilization which built it, it would have to be at least a Type 2. So many people want to know if this dimming is caused by a Dyson Sphere many have decided to try and find out by crowdfunding a project to do just that. The star they want to investigate is KIC 8462852. NASA’s Kepler’s telescope was responsible for finding the odd occurrence with this star. KIC 8462852 looks like an ordinary F type star. It is just slightly bigger and hotter than our sun. It appears in the constellation Cygnus. Astronomers are now calling this star the most mysterious in the sky since there are so many instances of dimming up to and over 20% of the star’s light.
When the James Webb telescope is finally launched it will provide much more magnification than the Hubble. The mirror on the telescope is 2.7 times bigger than that on the Hubble telescope, meaning it will gather far more light. The Hubble telescope does have one advantage in that it is reachable in orbit for repairs and the James Webb telescope won’t be, because it will be placed 1.5 million kilometers above the earth which is too far to be reached today. Therefore it only has a life expectancy of about 5.5 years. It will be able to get a better look at KIC 8462852 and perhaps this will be all we will need to find out what is going on.
When the phenomena of dimming of the star was first found and after it was ascertained it was not caused by planets orbiting news about the star was quiet for a while then a new theory emerged. It was said debris from a comet or asteroid could be orbiting and causing the dimming, but it wasn’t long before this was dismissed due to the fact the mass would not have been sufficient to cause this much dimming.
If it turns out an artificial structure of some kind is responsible for this event, then we are looking at a space faring race and perhaps one which could be responsible for some of the UFOs which have been seen in our skies. Some scientists have warned us not to try and contact a race like this, because they feel they might come here and conquer us and there would be no way for us to stop them. I don’t think this is a problem since we have no way for speedy contact. I say this, because it has been estimated this star is 1,480 light years away and if we sent a radio signal of a laser flash, both would only travel at about the speed of light. This also means what we are seeing, even if it is a Dysan Sphere had to have been built at least 1,480 years ago and may no longer be there, because the light from this star is taking 1,480 years to reach us.
Scientists wanted to be sure the dimming effect was not something just in that region, so they examined over 500 nearby stars and none exhibited this dimming effect. Can you imagine if it is a Dyson Sphere causing the dimming? We would have found a race of beings more advanced than us by thousands of years if the Kardashev scale is correct. Having looked at the scale I can say it is impressive, but I also have to say I really don’t trust it. Who is to say a race would have to be further ahead in evolution to reach a certain point. If the ancient Greeks on earth would have followed up with their inventions such as the steam engine and screw among other things, where would we have been? Perhaps we would have reached Type 2 on the scale by now. There is no way to explain why the Greek inventions got lost in time.
Does a Dyson Sphere exist, probably not, because an advanced race might have a better way to do things? Remember this was thought up by us, a primitive race by the standards of a Type 2 one.
