With preacher Harold Camping's prophecies earlier this year, and the Mayan calendar's prediction about the end of the world next year, doomsday seems a hot topic these days.
But today, I received a reassuring press release from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, assuring a worried public (were we worried about this?) that a gigantic, killer solar flare won't destroy the Earth in 2012.
"There simply isn't enough energy in the Sun to send a killer fireball 93 million miles to destroy Earth," NASA's Karen C. Fox reports in the release.
While solar activity is currently increasing in its standard 11-year cycle, this same cycle has occurred over millennia. So anyone over the age of 11 has already lived through such a solar maximum, with no harm, according to NASA.
However, NASA also notes that the next solar maximum is predicted to occur in late 2013 or early 2014, not 2012.
Additionally, it's also true that geomagnetic "storms" caused by solar activity can disrupt some radio communications, endanger satellites and even knock out power systems.
So being without our iphones, GPS devices, and Blackberries might seem like the end of the world to some folks, come to think of it.
Visit Science Fair for your daily dose of scientific news, from dinosaurs to distant galaxies. Science Fair is written by science reporters Dan Vergano and Elizabeth Weise and weather reporter Doyle Rice. Their subjects are often controversial -- and always fascinating -- be they stem-cell research, slime mold, or underground slush on Mars. More about the team