Thanks Red Badger. I suggest hitting the snooze button when something like this happens. And if that doesn't work, anyone in the immediate area just stay in bed.
The Cycle of Cosmic Catastrophes:
Flood, Fire, and Famine
in the History of Civilization
by Richard Firestone,
Allen West, and
Simon Warwick-Smith
In its orbit around the galaxy, our Sun periodically crosses into dust lanes swept up by the galaxy's electromagnetic forces.
The dust acts as a blanket, trapping a percentage of the Sun's light, this warms the solar surface enough to kick fusion into overdrive and trigger a solar micronova.
That's pretty catastrophic for Earth. Survivable for the lucky and prepared, but a major disaster nonetheless.
The periodicity is about 12,000 years.
The last one was about 12,000 years ago...
At some point, Sol will become a Red Giant and consume EVERYTHING all the way out to the orbit of MARS.
The Earth and everything man has ever done will become Dust in the Wind..........................................