If the black hole at the center of the milky way galaxy caused this, I'm surprised this star is still in one piece. The star must have approached the black hole at just the right angle for this to occur. Accoarding to one of the articles the whole galaxy spins around this center black hole, so we must be getting closer and closer? At the same time this black hole must be getting an ever increased mass sucking every star in the galaxy closer and closer at an accelerating pace. The escaping star must be one of the lucky few. Can you say one in a million, or maybe more like one in a trillion?

If the same thing happened to our sun it would provide an interesting way of space travel. The speed at which a star travels through the universe shouldn't affect any of it's properties, maybe there is planets circling this particular star? Someone might be in for one heck of a ride!