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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HI,

I think it's amazing they have been able to locate a change in light emitted from the star and that they've been able to conclude that is was a 100km wide comet that was responsible for the noted change.

Since my knowledge in astronomy is good but not to the extremes, I'm know they've been able to know the difference in magnitude but how did they conclude it was a comet? Did the volatiles in the comet give the star some distortion in it's power outage, disrupted somehow by the relatively "small" 100km wide object.. When I think about it, the star is huge in comparison..

Great discoveries incite our imagination, thanks for bringing in that topic!

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"For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring".
Carl Sagan.