Zheng Zheng, University of Utah (IMAGE) University of Utah Caption Zheng Zheng, an assistant professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Utah, led a team of American and Chinese scientists who discovered the closest bright hypervelocity star of 20 yet found. Scientists believe each hypervelocity star began as part of a binary pair of stars near the center of our Milky Way galaxy, where extreme gravity from a supermassive black hole sucked in one star in the pair and, like a bolo, simultaneously hurled the other star -- a new hypervelocity star -- toward the edge of the galaxy. Credit Lee J. Siegel, University of Utah. Usage Restrictions None License Licensed content Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.