Nearly six centuries ago, Korean astronomers scanning the night sky for omens of the future spotted a new star in the cluster of stars they called Wei, and what today’s star watchers consider the tail of the Scorpius constellation.

Fourteen nights later, it vanished.

Astronomers have now identified the source of that brief brightening — a binary star system a couple of thousand light-years away.

Michael Shara, an astrophysicist at the American Museum of Natural History in New York, has been seeking to understand what happens following explosions in violent star systems known as “cataclysmic variables.” He has searched for the remnants of this particular event for a long time.

“Now, about 25 years later, we’ve finally come up with it,” Dr. Shara said. The researchers report their findings Wednesday in the journal Nature.