Valerie Kirk has contained the universe by weaving strands of wool.

Within the cotton warp and woollen weft, Kirk has captured the research of ANU Nobel Laureate Professor Brian Schmidt.

The tapestry is over a metre wide and two metres long, and throughout the last nine months, Kirk has managed to weave it around her commitments as the head of the textiles workshop at the ANU School of Art.

The main image on the tapestry is taken from the Hubble Telescope image that Professor Schmidt suggested was the photograph that really sums up his work.

But the tapestry isn’t just a view of stars.

In the lower section there is a small sliver of the earth which has equations on it, almost non-descript, like a kind of graffiti.

“In his office I saw a whiteboard where Brian had been communicating with a friend in equations,” said Kirk.

“I really like that idea, that this is what he does: he’s here on earth, looking out in space and he views the world through equations.”

Professor Schmidt was impressed at their inclusion.

“They are equations of physics, of man, of humanity. This is what we use to understand what we see,” he said.

The digital view of the universe, which played an important part in the research is also in the woven image.

The tapestry is covered in pixels, which creep across it in varying sizes and also form a contrasting band along the top.

“Over laced is my first discovery,” said Professor Schmidt, “a supernova which is five billion years in the past, that exploded before the earth was formed.”

It is represented as dark splatters across pixelated time, and Kirk says the spots are the images that made the researchers first think that they were onto something big.

“It’s very complicated, because as you can see: it’s weaving the universe,” said Kirk.

Professor Schmidt says he finds the tapestry compelling.

“It was never an expectation that I would inspire art with my work,” said Professor Schmidt.

“One of the things I love about the ANU is how broad it is, we are able to mix the science and the art and music – all of the things that the ANU does well, and this is an expression of that.

“I think we see here in these five tapestries, science and art coming together in a very compelling way.”

“We should do more of those, and we should do that by winning more Nobel Prizes so we can keep on piling up tapestries on the wall!”

The tapestry was unveiled this afternoon, and hangs at University House along with tapestries celebrating Nobel Prize winners Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty, John Eccles, and Howard Florey as well as one acknowledging the work of the late Frank Fenner. The tapestries represent the height of research excellence from ANU academics.

Professor Brian Schmidt is an astronomer at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics at The Australian National University.