Earth could be getting a second sun, at least temporarily. Dr.
Brad Carter, Senior Lecturer of Physics at the University of
Southern Queensland, outlined the scenario to news.com.au.
Betelgeuse, one of the night sky's brightest stars, is losing
mass, indicating it is collapsing. It could run out of fuel and
go super-nova at any time. When that happens, for at least a few
weeks, we'd see a second sun, Carter says. There may also be no
night during that timeframe. The Star Wars-esque scenario could
happen by 2012, Carter says... or it could take longer. The
explosion could also cause a neutron star or result in the
formation of a black hole 1300 light years from Earth, reports
news.com.au. But doomsday sayers should be careful about
speculation on this one. If the star does go super-nova, Earth
will be showered with harmless particles, according to Carter.
"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