It's easy for us humans to forget how vulnerable we are as a species. That we're essentially on a rock spinning in a huge universe filled with other rocks spinning and one of them could easily hit us and wipe us out in an instant. Hell, we don't forget it so much as desperately put it out of our minds! But one town in central Russia got a rude reminder of this scary reality when they awoke to a huge meteor exploding over their heads. There have been no reports of anyone being killed -- a true miracle! -- but hundreds were injured by damaged buildings, flying glass, and falling debris. This is the nuttiest and most terrifying event you'll see all year. (Hopefully.)

Nerd alert! A group of die-hard Star Wars fans (is there any other kind?) recently sent the White House a petition to start building a Death Star by 2016. The petition garnered 34,435 signatures, and since the White House will give official responses to petitions with 25,000 or more, they responded.

It should be noted that the "nerd alert" reference above doesn't refer to the fact that a Death Star petition was created, it refers to the White House's hilariously geeky response. And we thought politicians had no sense of humor.

Hey guys. Just a heads up that a doomsday asteroid that's over 1,000 feet wide is going to whiz by Earth tonight. No big deal, really, unless you're, like, I don't know, worried, or whatever, that this Apophis asteroid, as it's called, was once estimated to have a 2.7 percent chance of colliding with our planet and forever changing life as we know it. But if things like that don't, like, alarm you, then yeah, tonight's big event in space is totally NBD.

All I have to say is that I hope Lance Bass is prepared for the journey because "alien Earth" discoveries are becoming more and more commonplace these days, and let's be real, soon enough we're going to need to send an astronaut-trained former boy band member there to check them out. Some scientists are hopeful that 2013 will bring the first, true proof of an Earth-like planet, an Earth twin, if you will, and I don't think you need to be the gay best friend of Kathy Griffith to appreciate this revelation.

Abel Mendez of the University of Puerto Rico is convinced we'll find Earth's long lost twinsie in the next 12 months. Time to start packing!

Soooo I guess the world is supposed to end tomorrow. Which sucks because I just paid my credit card bill. What'd I do that for?! Anyway, this has something to do with the Mayan calendar, yada yada. Hey, look, I've been hearing about the end of the world since I was a kid. I remember when I was about 5 years old, there was a big end of the world thing. I was so upset and asked my mom if the world was really ending. She replied, "Dunno." Thanks, Mom!

Anyway, I know some of you are actually worried about this ... I guess?! And you're making preparations. And maybe you're concerned about your pets, and what to do with them just in case there is actually an apocalyptic alignment between Earth and a blackhole in the center of the galaxy and blah blah blah ... So let's talk about protecting your fur babies.

Even NASA has started to chatter about the upcoming supposed Mayan Apocalypse, so maybe it's not just the crazy-pants ramblings of ancient-astrology aficionados? (Actually, yes it is. It very much is.) The year's End of the World prediction has become such a talked-about issue that NASA says it gets emails and letters from people who worry that the world as we know it really is going end on December 21, 2012. On the Mayan calendar, that date marks the end of a calendar cycle called the 13th b'ak'tun.

Now, Mayan scholars say there's no reason to believe this date predicts anything of the sort, but the conspiracy-mongers of the world say some cosmic event will end all life on Earth that day. Why would NASA comment about something like this?

It's for the children.

The Earth will get a rare treat on Tuesday, November 13 when a total solar eclipse will be visible from the northern part of Australia. The solar eclipse -- technically on November 14 down in Australia -- will begin on Tuesday at 3:35 p.m. EST. But fear not, you won't need a ticket to the land down under to see it. 

Remember that movie Another Earth? It was in theatres maybe a year ago or so, and it was about the discovery of this duplicate planet in our solar system  called Earth 2 which was populated with duplicate people living parallel lives? (Or something like that. I didn't actually see the movie, but I remember the commercials.) Anyway, guess what? Scientists just discovered ... another Earth. Except this one's not in our solar system and they're calling it a "Super Earth" because it's seven times the mass of this Earth, but it still "orbits its parent star at roughly the same distance as Earth does from the sun." And THAT means it could have similarly habitable conditions to our home planet! Meaning ... duplicate people living parallel lives?