World's Largest Laser To Achieve Nuclear Fusion With 'Stream of Exploding Stars'

Originally posted by DarkspARCS

Originally posted by Signals
Anybody ready for...

Type 1 Civilization Status?

Can you explain this term?

Energy is a static quantity and is denoted in joules. Power is a measure of energy transfer over time, and is denoted in watts (joules per second). The three levels of the Kardashev Scale can be quantified in units of power (watts) and plotted on an increasing logarithmic scale.

* Type I — a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available on a single planet — has approximately 1016 or 1017 W available.[2] Earth specifically has an available power of 1.74 × 1017 W (174 petawatts, see Earth's energy budget). Kardashev's original definition was 4 × 1012 W — a "technological level close to the level presently attained on earth" ("presently" meaning 1964).[3]
* Type II — a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available from a single star, approximately 4 × 1026 W.[2] Again, this figure is variable; the Sun outputs approximately 3.86 × 1026 W. Kardashev's original definition was also 4 × 1026 W.[3]
* Type III — a civilization that is able to harness all of the power available from a single galaxy, approximately 4 × 1037 W.[2] This figure is extremely variable, since galaxies vary widely in size; the stated figure is the approximate power output of the Milky Way. Kardashev's original definition was also 4 × 1037 W.[3]

Using nuclear explosion tests as a perspective, Tsar Bomba, the largest nuclear weapon ever detonated, released an estimated 57 megaton yield; even a Type I civilization makes use of roughly 25 megatons of TNT equivalent a second. A Type II civilization controls 4 × 109 times more energy (4 billion hydrogen bombs per second), and a type III 1011 times more yet.

Current human civilization (2010) has a Kardashev value of about 0.718. However, the Kardashev scale was not developed to model a specific civilization. It is primarily used by SETI researchers, science fiction authors, and futurists as a theoretical framework.