Typical stars in the Milky Way travel with velocities of approximately 100-300 kilometres per second. However, hypervelocity stars (HVS) travel at over a thousand kilometres per second. How can we explain these ultra-high velocities?
PhD candidate Fraser Evans wrote his PhD thesis on this phenomenon and argues that observations of hypervelocity stars can help constrain still-uncertain aspects of these extreme phenomena. HVS can, for example, tell us more about the gravity of black holes or the amount of energy a supernova produces.
Read his interview here