Astronomers think they found the exact night that inspired Van Gogh's 'Starry Night'

On a summer night in 1889, Vincent van Gogh looked out of his window in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France, and saw a sky he would turn into one of the most loved paintings on Earth. Now a team of astronomers from South Korea argues it can name the night: July 22, 1889. Their study, published this week in Scientific Reports, matches the stars and moon in the painting to that evening's sky. 'No two skies are the same,' says lead author Elijah Jeong-hyun Kim of Kyung Hee University. Not every art historian is convinced — but the detective work itself is a delight.