Keeping Up With The Kardashev Scale

Posted on May 2, 2021 by olivesobservatory
Yes, this is the Citadel from Mass Effect

Feel free to take a few seconds out of your day to fully appreciate the genius title I came up with for this post. I’ll even give you some scrolling to do while you appreciate it!

The Kardashev scale was designed in 1964 by Nikolai Kardashev to measure a civilization’s level of technological capability based on the amount of energy it is able to harness. Kardashev began with Type I, II, and III civilizations, and the scale has expanded since then to include Type IV and V civilizations. Funnily enough (more like sadly, I suppose), we’re not even on the scale yet!

Type I civilizations have the power to fully utilize the energy of their own planet. You might think we already do (spoiler alert: we don’t), but this would actually require us to gain control of volcanoes, weathers, earthquakes, and all that good stuff. Current assessments actually put us at a 0.72 on the scale, but considering the scale is logarithmic, we have a good ways to go before we reach Type I. To be specific, it’s estimated to be around 100-200 years. Type II civilizations are able to fully harness the power of their neighboring star, and to reach this designation, we would need to increase our energy production by over 100,000 times. Sounds pretty easy to me! For these types of civilizations, think some of the advanced species from the video game Mass Effect, Star Wars’ Starkiller Base (a [Hosnian] PRIME example, in my opinion), and maybe even Star Trek’s Federation of Planets. Type III civilizations can control the energy of their galaxy, and are best characterized as the Asgardians in the MCU (the Bifrost, a type of wormhole, requires an IMMENSE amount of energy to sustain based on some complicated mathy things I really don’t want to get into, placing them around 3.2) and the Masters of the Mystic Arts from Doctor Strange. As for Type IV and Type V civilizations (which Kardashev personally believed were too advanced), they are able to utilize the energies of the entire universe and multiple universes, respectively. These would require civilizations to tap into energy sources and laws of physics that are currently unknown to us, and some even theorize that these civilizations could live inside of black holes. One such example of a potential Type IV civilization are the Gallifreyans from Doctor Who. These civilizations harness an unimaginable amount of power, and although I consider myself an optimist, these civilizations are beyond even the limits of my own imagination.

In short, here is the Kardashev scale breakdown:

  • Type I – Planetary Civilization
  • Type II – Stellar Civilization
  • Type III – Galactic Civilization
  • Type IV – Universal Civilization
  • Type V – Multi-Universal Civilization

This has probably been my favorite blog post thus far, so I hope you all enjoyed! I’m curious to hear your thoughts- this scale may be interesting to theorize about, but do you think it’s actually an arbitrary one? Do you think humanity would even last long enough to advance up the scale, maybe even to a Type V civilization? Is there even a limit to this scale, or could we continually keep extending it as we learn more about our universe and energy sources?

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I Want To Believe!

Posted on May 1, 2021 by olivesobservatory
Photo Credit: Milwaukee Magazine

Forget Fermi’s paradox. Forget the Drake equation. Yet another hot-button topic relating to astronomy and (potential?) extraterrestrial life is- you guessed it- unidentified flying objects (UFOs for short). Do I think it’s kind of a stretch that I’m relating this to chapter 24? Absolutely! But with the (relatively) recent declassification by the Pentagon of three U.S. Navy videos showing “unexplained aerial phenomena,” I think it’s about time I share with you all my top 5 UFO sightings. Let’s go!

“Britain’s Roswell”

The United Kingdom’s most famous UFO sightings occurred near Rendlesham Forest in 1980. Two U.S. Air Force personnel reported strange lights falling to Earth at around 3 A.M. They then proceeded to enter the forest and saw a metallic object floating around and emitting light. Local police arrived and discovered markings at the site, and a few days later, more servicemen reported three bright lights in the sky that lasted for hours. The Air Force lieutenant and the witnesses still maintain what they saw.

Chicago O’Hare Airport Encounter

United Airlines staff and pilots at the O’Hare Airport in 2006 noticed a dark grey saucer hovering above gate C17. The UFO reportedly hovered for around five minutes until it shot upwards into the overcast sky, breaking a hole in the clouds (enough so that people could then see the blue sky). A total of 12 United employees, as well as other witnesses, corroborated this claim. The Federal Aviation Administration did not investigate the incident, citing “weather phenomenon” and the fact that the UFO had not been picked up by the radar.

Aguadilla Airport Incident

In 2013, a UFO was reported flying at low altitude across the runway at the Rafael Hernandez Airport in Puerto Rico. The vessel did not give off any warning signals, and it ended up delaying a flight’s departure. In some instances in the footage, it travelled below tree-top altitude at speeds close to 100 mph. The video footage can be found here.

Tic-Tac UFO Sighting

In 2004, a U.S. Navy pilot commander and flight crew reported something “not from this Earth” when they saw a vessel shaped like a tic-tac moving at incredible speeds (3x the speed of sound and more than double the speed of their fighter jets). The crew was able to track the object and film it, and I’ve added a picture of the footage below. The link to the video can be found here.

Navy pilot recalls encounter with UFO: 'I think it was not from this world' - ABC News
Image Credit: ABC News
GO FASTER Video

Definitely my favorite UFO sighting (and footage) thus far! This video was publicized as part of the Pentagon’s declassification, in which it shows the tracking by a U.S. Navy F/A-18 Super Hornet of an unidentified aircraft flying at low altitude. Some attribute this sighting to parallax, as a fast-moving jet would create the illusion of a relatively slow object (like a bird or balloon) moving fast. I DEFINITELY recommend watching the video, where you can hear the excitement and exclamations of the pilots.

Do I believe that some of these incidents could be easily explained by non-extraterrestrial phenomena? Well, yes, of course. But is that any fun? No! So what do you all think? Do you think aliens have visited our humble abode, and if so, what are your favorite alien encounter stories? And if you don’t think aliens have visited, feel free to share why!

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The Star That Vanished

Posted on May 1, 2021 by jagobillot

From 2001-2011, astronomers studied a luminous blue variable star about 75 million light years away in the Aquarius constellation. It was a massive star, about 2.5 million times brighter than our Sun, and it was approaching the end of its life.

An artist's impression of the the luminous blue variable star that mysteriously vanished.

Flash forward to 2019, and an astronomer named Andrew Allan, began a study of distant LBV stars, as they normally create massive supernova explosions and color a massive vicinity around them with ionized gasses and radiation.

But Allan looked towards the previous location of this star in Aquarius, and it has vanished entirely. Supernova explosions typically leave a residual neutron star or black hole, but in this case, there was nothing to signal that a star even existed… much less a massive LBV.

Astronomers have given two answers to this perplexing situation. One is that the star collapsed into a black hole without a supernova explosion, which would be the first documented case of this occurrence. The other is that dust and space debris is covering up, and it has lost significant luminosity.

Either way… weird.

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Reflection on Astronomy 2110

Posted on May 1, 2021 by laineroberts

The biggest thing I will take away from all that I have learned in Astronomy this year is just how small and irrelevant humans are both in comparison to the size and timeline of the universe. I had always heard that the universe was infinitely big but never thought anything of it and didn’t consider the existence of anything outside of our own tiny solar system. I assumed that since the only planets I had learned about were in our solar system, those were the only planets that existed. In reality, our solar system is just a very small part of The Milky Way Galaxy, which is just a very small part of our universe. Whether or not humans destroy their ability to live on Earth, the universe will be affected very little or not at all by the change. Maybe if more people learned, in a scientific context, that the Earth is not the center of the universe, they will be more careful of the affect they have one the Earth as well as appreciating their very brief existence on earth and in the universe.

Earth in comparison to the universe!
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Fermi Paradox

Posted on May 1, 2021 by laineroberts

Do you believe in aliens? With over 4,000 planets outside of our solar system and likely many many more, it seems almost crazy not to. Using the Drake Equation, astronomers estimate the probability of alien life outside of our solar system. Depending on the scientist’s opinions and research, this number can vary greatly but often indicates that it is probable that there is in fact life outside of our solar system. The Fermi Paradox, however, addresses the fact that there is a contradiction between the estimates of probable alien life and the complete lack of any evidence of alien life. According to the Fermi paradox, if there are in fact many Earth like planets in the universe that have developed intelligent life, the Earth should have already been visited by some form of alien life or at least received communications from other forms of life similar to the ones that we have sent out into space in the past. What do you think? Does the fact that we have no evidence to prove the existence of alien life prove that aliens are not real or was Fermi being too pessimistic in his theory? Is there any possibility that there is evidence of alien life visiting our planet long before we came into existence, but we have failed to recognize it because we see it as an ordinary aspect of life on earth?

Aliens come to visit Earth “To Serve Man” in the Twilight Zone!
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What Life on Titan Would Look Like

Posted on May 1, 2021 by jagobillot

Titan is a world that fits many criteria for a world that could host life. Because it has temperatures at about -290 degrees celsius on the surface, life would most likely be extremophile microbes below the methane surface. But an organism living entirely off of methane did not seem likely to me originally, until I ran into the methane ice worm.

methane ice worm picture

This alien looking creature is a 2-inch long worm that lives on the sea floor in the gulf on Mexico. They feed and survive on bacteria within the methane. So not only is there a possibility of microbes surviving in the subterraneous methane deposits on Titan, there could be scary alien worms too!

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Theia

Posted on May 1, 2021 by dayanel123

For my last blog post I have decided to blog about something close to home. The Theia impact is also called the Big Splash, and is a hypothesis as to how we got our moon. The theory is that a mars-sized planetesimal impacted our proto-earth in its early life. This massive impact essentially shredded Theia to bits, and also forced Earth to eject a substantial amount of its mass. Gravity then went to work and thus began the formation of our moon. There currently are a few key indicators that the Theia event did indeed happen. The following is points that support Theia, and is directly copied from Wikipedia:

“Earth’s spin and the Moon’s orbit have similar orientations.
The Earth-Moon system contains an anomalously high angular momentum. Meaning, the momentum contained in the Earth’s rotation, the Moon’s rotation, and the Moon revolving around the earth is significantly higher than the other terrestrial planets. A giant impact may have supplied this excess momentum.
Moon samples indicate that the Moon was once molten down to a substantial, but unknown, depth. This may have required more energy than predicted to be available from the accretion of a body of the Moon’s size. An extremely energetic process, such as a giant impact, could provide this energy.
The Moon has a relatively small iron core. This gives the Moon a lower density than the earth. Computer models of a giant impact of a Mars-sized body with the Earth indicate the impactor’s core would likely penetrate the Earth and fuse with its own core. This would leave the Moon with less metallic iron than other planetary bodies.
The Moon is depleted in volatile elements compared to the earth. Vaporizing at comparably-lower temperatures, they could be lost in a high-energy event, with the Moon’s smaller gravity unable to recapture them while the earth did.
There is evidence in other star systems of similar collisions, resulting in debris disc.
Giant collisions are consistent with the leading theory of the formation of the Solar System.
The stable-isotope ratios of lunar and terrestrial rock are identical, implying a common origin.”

By Wikipedia
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Culmination Post

Posted on May 1, 2021 by lorenzchen14

Milky Way Galaxy over Chile

In the culminating post for this class, I just wanted to write about how my understanding of astronomy has changed. I have obviously gained a greater appreciation for our Solar System as a whole, and learning a little about the magnitudes and sizes of objects in space puts some things into perspective for me. The Milky Way could have potentially 400 billion stars, and that still impresses me. The class showed me how relatively insignificant we are in comparison to everything else out there, especially with respect to the time scale. At most, I will live to be 100 years old, and this doesn’t even register as a rounding error on the history of the Earth. But the course also showed me how much unknown is out there. It is a little weird to think that we do not know the reasons behind the geological processes of Pluto for example. I would have assumed given the capabilities of NASA that we would have discovered these processes by now.

I am however, very excited for the future of space exploration. I still remember seeing the cover of a special edition of a magazine showing a space shuttle. The title read something like, “the End of an Era”. At a pretty young age, I was sad because it seemed humans no longer wanted to explore like during the Apollo missions. But now, with the potential of manned Mars missions and Martian helicopters, I am hopeful that we make some shocking explorations in the future!

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Conan the Bacterium, a potential Martian?

Posted on April 30, 2021 by lorenzchen14

Conan the Bacterium, also known as Dionococcus Radiodurans

Evolution, as far as we know, has always been pushing the limits of adaptability, allowing organisms to survive in the harshest of environments. Life that is extremely adaptable to almost all living environments are called extremophiles, hence their name. Scientists have recently hypothesized that some of Earth’s most resilient microbes may be able to survive the environment of Mars. The best candidate thus far is a microbe dubbed “Conan the Bacterium“. Conan the Bacterium, also known as Deinococcus radiodurans, is the most radiation resistant organism found. It is able to survive radiation doses that would kill a human thousands of times over. In the lab, Deinococcus radiodurans has been shown to survive gamma rays similar to doses received 30 cm below Mars, and survive cold temperatures of -79 degrees celsius. But this kind of durability that Deinococcus radiodurans shows is not all that rare.

An entire family of archaea called Halobacteriaceae are also extremely adaptable. Members of these organisms have already been shown to survive lab conditions that mimc some of the radioactive living conditions of Mars. Another family of organisms that could also potentially do well on Mars are called the methanogens. These organisms live anywhere from the gut of intestines to the permafrost of the Arctic. These microbes do not need light, or oxygen. They can survive cold temperatures as well as high levels of UV and radiation. All these organism have certain adaptations that prevents cellular damage from high energy wavelengths. For me, what is eye opening is that these organisms evolved on Earth, on a planet with relatively stable living conditions. Yet, they are so versatile and so adaptable. I could only imagine the type of organisms could potentially be found on Mars and evolved on the red planet.

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Titan

Posted on April 30, 2021 by brianknapp

Titan is the largest of Saturn’s moons, and one of the biggest moons in our solar system period, 50% larger than our own moon. In my opinion, it’s also one of the coolest. While it’s not exactly the prettiest to look at, kind of just being a grosser and hazier version of Saturn minus the rings, it more than makes up for its appearance with its fascinating chemical makeup.

Titan, from Wikipedia

Titan actually has a very thick atmosphere, with a pressure more intense than our own by nearly 50%. Like Earth’s atmosphere, Titan’s is also made up of mostly nitrogen gas, although Titan has 97% compared to our almost 80%. That’s about where the similarities end. Probably the most interesting thing about Titan is that it has bodies of liquid on its surface. It has rivers and oceans just like you would expect from such a world. However, these oceans aren’t made of water like back home. The rivers run full of liquid methane! I imagine it smells horrendous down there, but I would die as soon as I was exposed, considering Titan is a toasty -300 degrees Fahrenheit.

I’d like to shout out the Huygens probe from the Cassini mission for touching down on the surface in 2004, and telling us pretty much all we know about this cool place. Without it, we’d probably just think it was some garden variety Jovian moon (not a term I thought I’d ever use). But, if there’s one thing I learned this semester, it’s that space can always surprise you, so in a way, Titan is actually par for the course. Here’s hoping we find more cool worlds the longer we look.

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