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Page last updated at 19:58 GMT, Wednesday, 3 December 2008

Light echoes from the 1572 supernova

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This animation illustrates how astronomers can "see a replay" of the moment a star exploded, several centuries after the event was first witnessed.

In the year 1572, the direct light wave from a supernova explosion swept past Earth and was observed by Tycho Brahe and others.

More than 400 years later, a secondary wave of light - reflected by the dust particles of an interstellar cloud - has reached the Earth.

This is called a light echo.

Light echoes are used by astronomers to reconstruct the events of a supernova.

Footage courtesy of Max-Planck-Institut für Astronomie

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