Title: On the Nature of Hypervelocity Stars

Abstract: ``Hypervelocity stars'' are stars ejected from the center of the 
Milky Way, never to return. I shall discuss results from gravitational 
N-body simulations that show how hypervelocity stars are produced by 
three-body interactions between a binary star system and the supermassive 
black hole that lies at the center of the Milky Way. I shall also discuss 
how interactions with the black hole may lead to the formation of massive 
stars through coalescence of the binary, and what may happen to planets 
that wander near the Galactic Center. I shall conclude the presentation 
with results of a recent observational program to help constrain the 
nature and distance of these hypervelocity stars.