Everything comes to an end, and our sun is no exception. A star happily cooking along in its middle age, Sol has many millions of good years ahead of it — but its eventual doom is certain. Here's what that will look like.

For the last few years the sun has been kicking back and relaxing. A lot. Although a huge solar flare recently made headlines, the surface of the sun has been quiet lately. Sunspots have been more scarce than they've been in the last 200 years. All solar activity is low. And it looks like it's going to stay that way…

After nearly a decade of quiet, the Sun is waking up in a big way, and this picture from August 1 shows the most dramatic eruption yet, including a solar flare, a "solar tsunami," shifting magnetism, shaken corona, and more.

Sun dogs, or parhelia, are little back-up suns that appear on either side of the sun. They are the Pips to the sun's Gladys, the Lion and the Witch to the sun's Wardrobe, and they look way cooler than rainbows.

You already know that the sun can be dangerous because of the harmful effects of UV rays, but were you aware of the problems posed by it failing to protect us from cosmic rays?

Fueling fears about the dimming sun, scientists are predicting that the current solar cycle is not only running a year or so late, but will also be the weakest cycle since 1928. Solar disaster!