CTA-102

In astronomy, CTA 102 is a quasar discovered in the early 1960s by a radio survey carried out by the California Institute of Technology. In 1963 Nikolai Kardashev proposed that the the then-unidentified radio source could be evidence of a Type II or III extra-terrestrial civilisation on the Kardashev scale, causing a worldwide sensation. This idea was rejected when the radio source was identified as a quasar.