concept stage · Belgrade, Serbia
SWARNET
Synthetic Wide Aperture Radio Network
A planet-sized radio telescope built by volunteers. Nodes are cheap enough for anyone. Together, they see farther than any observatory on Earth.
∞
aperture grows with network
24/7
continuous sky coverage
0
central points of failure
How it works
Antenna node
A small dish, SDR receiver, GPS oscillator. Listens to a slice of the radio sky. Knows nothing about the rest of the network.
Compute node
Any computer or GPU. Correlates data from antenna nodes. No dish required — contribute processing power instead.
Emergent aperture
Resolution is determined by the distance between the farthest nodes. A global network rivals professional VLBI systems.
Weighted democracy
Influence over observation targets is earned through real contribution — signal quality, uptime, geographic coverage.
Self-verifying
The network continuously verifies its own data without any external reference. No single point of trust.
First targets
Galactic hydrogen
21cm line mapping. Every node contributes from day one.
Solar flares
Real-time CME monitoring and triangulation across time zones.
Transients
Fast radio bursts and other short-lived events the sky keeps missing.
Pulsars
Continuous timing of bright pulsars — impossible for professional scopes.