Education
Kardashev graduated from Moscow State University in 1955, following up at Sternberg Astronomical Institute. He studied under Shklovskii and finished his Doctor of Philosophy in 1962.
Astronomer astrophysicist inventor scientist
Kardashev graduated from Moscow State University in 1955, following up at Sternberg Astronomical Institute. He studied under Shklovskii and finished his Doctor of Philosophy in 1962.
In 1963 Kardashev examined quasar CTA-102, the first Soviet effort in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence). In this work he came up with the idea that some galactic civilizations would be perhaps millions or billions of years ahead of us, and created the Kardashev classification scheme to rank such civilizations. Type II, "a civilization capable of harnessing the energy radiated by its own star", and Type III, "a civilization in possession of energy on the scale of its own galaxy".
Serious Russian efforts in Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence predate similar programs in the United States by some years.
Other notable experts in the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics were Vsevolod Troitskii and Iosif Samuilovich Shklovskii (Kardashev"s former professor).
Kardashev defined three levels of civilizations, based on energy consumption: Type I with "technological level close to the level presently attained on earth, with energy consumption at ≈4×1019 erg/sec (4 × 1012 watts)". He became a full member of the Russian Academy of Sciences on March 21, 1994 and was awarded the Demidov Prize in 2014.
Russian Academy of Sciences. Academy of Sciences of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics]
Kardashev became a corresponding (associate) member of the Union of the Soviet Socialist Republics Academy of Sciences, Division of General Physics and Astronomy on December 12, 1976.
