Depends I guess on whether it’s to the fragment or the comet that you want to attribute the sense or “broken”.
Here is where I got my answer for this:
A “fragment” is a piece of something that was broken or split. Thus “fragment” implies “brisé”. You could just write “Le fragment de la comète s’est écrasé en pleine mer”.
However, it is pretty common to reinforce an idea with a pleonasm, so your sentence is still valid. Now, as to which to prefer… I actually believe both to be correct, just placing a subtle emphasis either:
- For the first one, on the fact that the fragment that plummets into the sea is the result of a breaking. I would translate that to “the piece that broke away from the comet”. Focus is on the fragment.
- For the second one, on the fact that the comet has be broken, and this is just one piece of it. I would translate that to “the piece of the broken comet”. Focus is on the comet.
First sentence would be read the wrong way by less attentive readers, so you might want to reword it like this: “Le fragment brisé de la comète s’est écrasé en pleine mer”. It also makes the pleonasm stronger as the two words are together.
The bigger mistake in this sentence is the improper use of the article. We would say either:
un fragment de comète brisé s’est écrasé en pleine mer.
Le/un fragment de la comète brisée s’est écrasé en pleine mer.
Le/un fragment d’une comète brisée s’est écrasé en pleine mer.
Let’s note the ‘fragment brisé’ is quite confusing, because it can not ‘s’écraser’ as it is already crushed. this is why I propose another example :
un morceau de saucisse séché ne tente personne.
Le/un morceau de la saucisse séchée ne tente personne
The article helps to determine if you consider the partition with ‘un morceau de’ or the main object with ‘de la’
This apply to all partitions: ‘un fragment de’ ‘un peu de’ ‘un morceau de’, …
Additional, I took this example because this is also correct:
un morceau de saucisse sèche ne tente personne.
un morceau de saucisse sec ne tente personne
But it is because ‘saucisse sèche’ is also a generic name 🙂
Edit: opinion over ‘fragment brisé’ conflict with ‘s’écraser’
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