The Dyson Swarm: Visualisation · Signals from the Periphery

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Scenario

Year 0

Epoch

T+0.0 yr

Captured

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Kardashev

K 0.73

DYSON SWARM · KARDASHEV II
proposed 1960 · F. Dyson · Science 131
a search proposal, not a blueprint
feedstock: Mercury · 3.3×10²³ kg
the searches: IRAS · WISE · Gaia
no confirmed detection · the open shortlist stands at 7

Feature

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Evidence

fact ⇄ what kind of claim · live

The Sun's output: 3.828×10²⁶ W

IAU nominal solar luminosity · the tap this project opens

MEASURED

Mercury's mass covers the sphere 1.17×

3.3×10²³ kg at 1 kg/m² vs 2.8×10²³ m² needed

MODELLED

Mercury airborne in ≈ 31 years

Armstrong & Sandberg's exponential feedback plan

MODELLED

Waste heat at 148-633 K, peak 5-20 µm

Stefan-Boltzmann on the drawn swarm · unhideable

MODELLED

IRAS, Ĝ, Hephaistos: no confirmed sphere

250k sources · 100k galaxies · 5M stars · 7 open

MEASURED

Tabby's Star dips are real, IR excess is not

the one famous candidate failed the heat test

MEASURED

Whether anyone ever builds one

engineering allows it · the silence so far is data

READING

View

Scenario · the 31-year plan

MODELLED · one 1 km² seed factory in orbit

▶ Build runs 31 years in ~50 s · the physics readouts never depend on playback speed

The build

Construction epoch0.0 yr

years since the seed factory. Nothing visible happens for two decades, then everything: that shape is the whole lesson, and ▶ Build lets you feel it.

Coverage target100%

how much of the sphere the finished swarm intercepts. Even a few percent of a star is a million years of humanity's budget.

Swarm orbit radius1.00 AU

waste-heat temperature follows geometry alone: T ∝ 1/√R. Closer runs hotter and needs less mass; farther runs colder and needs planets more of it.

Collector unit size1.0 km²

changes only the census, never the energy: capture is area times flux however it is subdivided.

Overlays

Infrared view · the WISE eye

Orbit lines

Mercury mass stream

Readout · exact from epoch, coverage, R

Captured power

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vs humanity's 18.5 TW

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Kardashev index

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Collector area

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Collector count

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Swarm waste heat

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Seen from afar

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Status

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What is measured vs modelled here

Measured: the Sun's 3.828×10²⁶ W, Mercury's mass, and every survey null: IRAS's quarter-million sources, Ĝ's 100,000 galaxies, Hephaistos's 5 million stars and its 7 open candidates, Tabby's missing infrared excess. Modelled: the 1 kg/m² collector, the 31-year exponential (Armstrong & Sandberg's assumptions), and every temperature this panel computes: exact Stefan-Boltzmann on stated geometry. Reading: whether anyone, anywhere, ever builds one. This instrument takes no side.

Where this drawing takes liberties

The swarm is drawn at roughly 3.5 solar radii instead of a true 215, each plate stands for about 10¹³ real collectors, and orbital speeds are compressed by a factor of millions so the rings visibly turn. The build fills the drawing by doublings, not by area: drawn to scale in area, the screen would stay empty until the final two years, which is the truth the strip chart tells instead. The readouts are never stylized: power, temperature, mass and count follow the formulas exactly.

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drag = orbit · scroll = zoom · click a label to inspect · press ▶ Build and watch the exponential