This news from Russia Today is from November, but I just noticed it... There is a star about to either have a "normal" supernova outburst - OR - it seems primed for an unusual gamma ray burst, the likes of which our civilization has never seen. At a distance of 8,000 light years, the event already happened long ago - but its event horizon hasn't reached us yet, so we still don't know for sure which way the star will blow off its excess energy. It could be intense enough to have a huge effect on Earth.