Telescope image that echoes Van Gogh’s ‘Starry Night’ contains some of the oldest stars in the universe — Space photo of the week

In a scene reminiscent of Vincent van Gogh’s “The Starry Night,” scientists have captured swirling nebulae, dark dust lanes and sparkling star clusters in remarkable detail.

This spectacular new image from the Dark Energy Camera (DECam) on the National Science Foundation’s Victor M. Blanco 4-meter Telescope in Chile shows the Corona Australis Molecular Cloud, one of the closest active star-forming regions to our solar system. It’s a place where temperatures fall to around minus 440 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 260 degrees Celsius), allowing dense pockets of gas and dust to collapse and form new stars.