Scientists using the W. M. Keck Observatory and Pan-STARRS1 telescopes on Hawaii have discovered a star that breaks the galactic speed record -- traveling with a velocity of about 1200 kilometers per second or 2.7 million miles per hour. This velocity is so high that the star will escape the gravity of our galaxy. The team showed that this compact star was ejected from an extremely tight binary by a thermonuclear supernova explosion.