New space image resembles a painting
A photograph taken with the 570-megapixel Dark Energy Camera (DECam) presents a vivid cosmic view whose swirling forms and abundant stars bring to mind Vincent van Gogh’s painting The Starry Night. The instrument was built by the U.S. Department of Energy and records a section of the southern sky.
On the left side of the frame, the glowing nebula NGC 6729 is visible. To its right appears the globular star cluster NGC 6723, a tight concentration of aged stars. Together with the star-filled background, the two objects form a visually dense composition.
Technical background of the observation
The DECam is installed on the U.S. National Science Foundation’s 4-meter Víctor M. Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American Observatory in Chile. The facility is operated as part of NSF NOIRLab, the national optical-infrared astronomy laboratory.
- 570-megapixel DECam instrument
- Location: Cerro Tololo, Chile
- Targets: NGC 6729 and NGC 6723
- Operator: NSF NOIRLab
The image illustrates the capability of modern ground-based astronomical instruments to record distant celestial objects with high levels of detail.