Scientist: Earth Could Have "New Sun" Within a Year

People love to hype 2012 as the end of the world.  It's BS, but hey, when it gets into the public consciousness, things stick.

Anywho, a scientist named Brad Carter is predicting that the star Betelgeuse is expected to go super-nova very soon.  If this happens, the sky that we look at could have two stars in it, even though Betelgeuse is 1,300 light years away.  On the bright side, Carter assures us that we won't all die:

"When a star goes bang, the first we will observe of it is a rain of tiny particles called nuetrinos.  They will flood through the Earth and bizarrely enough, even though the supernova we see visually will light up the night sky, 99 per cent of the energy in the supernova is released in these particles that will come through our bodies and through the Earth with absolutely no harm whatsoever.”

So that's good news.

But there has been speculation that a supernova could wipe out all complex life on the planet-- especially due to gamma radiation. I don't know how Mr. Carter knows that the Earth is safe, but I'd like something a little more concrete.

In the year 1006 there was another supernova, SN 1006 that was visible on earth for two days. It was called a "guest star." One account related that the supernova was half as large as our moon in the sky. We can still see the outline of the supernova with telescopes (below:)

SN 1006

And if you are a Star Wars nerd and always envisioned yourself as Luke Skywalker, something like this picture could be here next year:

Please bookmark!