Hypervelocity Star Breaks Universal Speed Record

1,200 Km / s.  That’s fast.  Fast enough to race around the entire Earth in 30 seconds.  Except that it’s not a bullet, it’s a star, larger and more massive than the Earth. And a multinational team of astronomers has discovered it, and more importantly, where it came from and why it’s moving so fast. Hypervelocity stars (HVS’) are an uncommon phenomenon, since the conditions necessary to accelerate them to incredible speeds are rare.  There are only about 20 HVS known, and the first was found only ten years ago.  So where do they come from? There are only a...