It’s not every day that we get to see something as spectacular as an exploding thermonuclear fireball, but that’s exactly what astronomers at Georgia State managed to do. Captured in spectacular quality, the fireball came from a nova that erupted last year in the constellation Delphinus.

Using telescopes from Georgia State University’s Center for High Angular Resolution Astronomy (CHARA), the observation is believed to be the first known instance of astronomers capturing a nova in the early fireball stage. Novas occur when a layer of hydrogen builds up on the surface of a white dwarf. Once this “sea” of hydrogen reaches a depth of about 650 feet, the enormous gravity of the white dwarf produces pressure at the base of the hydrogen layer so great that thermonuclear fusion is triggered.

The resulting light is bright, much brighter than the star’s normal output and sometimes bright enough to be seen with the naked eye. The fireball will eventually expand and dissipate, but what happens in the mean time is a remarkable sight. All told, the study included 37 researchers from 17 different institutions.

Measurement of the nova occurred over the course of two months, and the measurements allowed astronomers to determine that the nova was located 14,800 from the sun. For perspective, that means that while astronomers are just now observing it, the actual explosion happened nearly 15,000 years ago. At the start of the explosion, they estimated the nova’s size to be roughly that of Earth’s orbit. 43 days later, it had expanded by 200%.

Though the first nova was observed in 1670, only recent innovations in observational technology have allowed scientists a glimpse at these earlier stages. This most recent observation, for instance, showed that the steps between a white dwarf and an exploding nova are more complicated than earlier models predicted.

The full study is published in the current issue of Nature.