Astronomers at the Max Planck Institute for Astronomy have managed to recreate the death of a star which occurred over four centuries ago. The remnants from that explosion, which was noticed by Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe in 1572, provided astronomers with enough information to be able to project the spectrum of the supernova on a computer screen.

The astronomers used the interstellar dust which resulted from the explosion as a mirror, as Oliver Krause of the Max Planck Institute said. When a star explodes, it radiates light in all directions, often being reflected by interstellar clouds of dust.

This way, they were able to determine that Brahe’s supernova, which he thought to be a ‘stella nova’ or new star, was in fact the explosion of an old star. Brahe wrote at the time: “I noticed that a new and unusual star, surpassing the other stars in brilliancy, was shining almost directly above my head.”

They established that the supernova is of “type 1a,” which means it was created by the explosion of a small, dense star, called white dwarf.

Establishing this element is of particular importance, as it might also help scientists explain more about the dark energy in the Universe. Type 1a supernovae have been identified in places farther than expected, leading scientists to believe that the dark energy is actually acting like a force pushing galaxies away from one another.

The observations are expected to help astronomers find out more about the dark energy, which they believed played an essential role in the 400-year-old explosion.