Van Gogh's Starry Night aligns with turbulence theory, study finds

A new study led by Chinese physicist Yongxiang Huang has found that Vincent van Gogh's "The Starry Night" (1889) accurately depicts atmospheric turbulence as described by Kolmogorov's theory. Analyzing a high-definition reproduction, researchers measured luminance in 14 swirling forms and discovered that their sizes, distances, and intensities follow the Richardson-Kolmogorov cascade, which governs kinetic energy transfer in turbulent flows. The study, published in Physics of Fluids, contrasts with previous research that examined only parts of the painting. Van Gogh painted the work in June 1889 while at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France. The painting is held at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. This is not the first scientific analysis of Van Gogh's work: in 2007, Italian physicist Gianluca Masi and Antonella Basso determined that another Van Gogh painting, likely "Starry Night Over the Rhône," was painted on September 28, 1888, in Arles, based on star positions reflected in water.