SUMMARY: Astronomers from Penn State University have spotted a large comet crashing into a distant star 3,200 light-years away. They used the 9.2-metre Hobby-Eberly Telescope at the McDonald Observatory in Texas to observe star LkHalpha 234, which is 6 times the mass of the Sun, but only 100,000 years old. They observed the star several times, and during one observation the light from the star changed as if it was obscured by cometary material. They were able to calculate that a 100 km comet must have vaporized near the star to create this effect.

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