UNLIKE THE WANDERING PLANETS, the stars appear to be fixed in the sky. Astronomers know, though, that this is only an illusion. The stars are moving too, floating lazily through space. At least, most of them are floating: careful observations from a land-based telescope of a star known as PSR 2224+65, in the constellation Cepheus, have revealed that this particular object is virtually shooting through the galaxy. Now 6,000 light-years from Earth and zipping along at more than 2 million m.p.h., it is going 10 times as fast as the speediest star ever seen, and 100 times as fast as most...
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