APOD: The Crown of the Sun. Solar eclipse as seen from Easter Island.

SPACE.com: Heftiest Star Discovery Shatters Cosmic Record. 300 times the mass of our sun.

Technology Review: The Death of Nemesis: The Sun's Distant, Dark Companion →

Apparently, it is almost certainly the case that mass extinctions occur every 26 to 27 million years (as per paleobiologists who have studied fossil records over the past 500 million years). One of the theories suggested to explain this peculiar periodicity was that the Sun has a twin, nicknamed Nemesis, that cuts through the Oort Cloud every 26-27 million years, thereby sending a flood of matter raining towards the inner solar system.

This article says the Nemesis theory is wrong. But, still, the idea is pretty cool.

APOD: Sunset from the International Space Station. They get to see that 16 times a day.

"Senior space agency scientists believe the Earth will be hit with unprecedented levels of magnetic energy from solar flares after the Sun wakes “from a deep slumber” sometime around 2013, The Daily Telegraph can disclose."

Telegraph: Nasa warns solar flares from ‘huge space storm’ will cause devastation. This could be problematic. I wonder if they will be able to narrow it down to something more precise than “sometime around 2013”…