Hubble Captures a Starry Night

Vincent Van Gogh saw the night sky as nobody else did -- until now. New images from the Hubble Space Telescope show an expanding swirl of illuminated interstellar dust reminiscent of the painterly skyscape of Van Gogh's "Starry Night."

The images captured in early February depict a distant red giant star called V838 Monocerotis, located about 20,000 light-years from Earth. The star gave off a pulse of light that illuminated a turbulent cloud of dust and gas, says NASA, revealing the swirls and eddies shown in the pictures at left.

While V838 Monocerotis is similar to a nova in many ways, it is unique among observed stellar objects for its behavior and its intense red color, according to the space agency.

The expanding light from the star will continue to illuminate more distant dust clouds, changing their appearance as it does. The object will be visible at least through 2010, say astronomers.