Dark matter artwork constellation of lenses

An illuminating visualisation of dark matter by Dutch artist Thijs Biersteker of Woven Studios has gone on show in the Science Gallery at Trinity College Dublin.

Created in collaboration with ESA and Leiden University in the Netherlands, the installation will be on display from 13 March. As the gallery is temporary closed to visitors due to public health concerns, moving images of the creation will be shown online.

The work – ‘Dark Distortions’ – was inspired by Euclid, a forthcoming ESA mission to study the mysterious nature of dark matter and dark energy, which is due to launch in mid-2022.

Dark matter is thought to account for 85% of the matter in the universe. Visible stuff within galaxies – such as stars and planets and dust – has insufficient gravitational pull to prevent galaxies from disintegrating as they rotate. But galaxies don’t fly apart in this way, so astrophysicists proposed that they must contain “dark” matter that has sufficient mass to keep galaxies intact – but which has never been seen directly.

Thijs Biersteker’s art installation consists of a constellation of moving lenses, which bend light just as large concentrations of dark matter act as gravitational lenses. The constellation is surrounded by layers of lenses on lenses, which represent the way in which dark matter is thought to accumulate in a fractal-like pattern.