ASTRONOMERS have pinpointed the precise date and time when Vincent van Gogh painted
The painting was hidden from Nazi looters in the 1930s and only re-emerged in Russia in 1995. It shows a white house at twilight with a prominent yellow star in the sky.
Only five of van Gogh's pictures show the night sky, but astronomers have been astounded by their accuracy. "I was surprised his paintings have such a strong basis in reality," says Donald Olson, an astronomer at Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos.
By running computer calculations Olson and colleague Russell Doescher figured out that the bright star in
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