Comets observed around nearby star.

Using data from a telescope that orbited the Earth aboard the space shuttle and a satellite in 1995, University of Wisconsin-Madison astronomers have found possible evidence of dozens of comets around a nearby star. The discovery, made in conjunction with a team from the Applied Research Corp. in Landover, Md., is important because comets are associated with the same processes that give birth to planets. It is one of only a few such discoveries of comets beyond the solar system and provides intriguing new insights into the primordial conditions that give rise to planets, asteroids, and comets.

The young star, HD 163296, is in the constellation Sagittarius and is a little more than 500 light-years away from Earth, indicates Karen Bjorkman, the astronomer who reported...