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Solar Flares Are for Sissies!

By Fox News
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Apocalyptic Flicks

Apocalyptic Flicks <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/12/07/plasma-storm-erupts-sun/?test=faces" target="_blank">This week,</a> NASA scientists captured images of a stunning solar storm that erupted from the sun, sending a burning tendril of plasma that extended more than 400,000 miles -- nearly twice the distance between Earth and the moon. Sound scary? Well, not according to Hollywood standards. From comets to asteroids to Mayan predictions, filmmakers have been tackling the idea of the destruction of Earth for decades.  Check out our top 5 picks for the most memorable onscreen tales of Earth's impending doom. (Escape Artists/AP/Jerry Bruckheimer Films)

Knowing ( 2009) Nicolas Cage stars in this sci-fi thriller where he plays Professor John Koestler, who becomes obsessed with the idea that a series of strange numbers unearthed in a time capsule at his child’s school hold the key to impending natural disasters. When he discovers that the code could predict the destruction of Earth, it’s a race against time to find a way to save life as we know it. (Escape Artists)

When Worlds Collide (1951) Based on the novel of the same name by Philip Wylie and Edwin Balmer, this 50s classic centers on Dr. Cole Henderson and Dr. Emery Bronson, who discover that another planet is on a collision course with Earth.   Henderson, played by Larry Keating, tries to warn world powers, but falls on deaf ears, until a wealthy wheelchair-confined investor decides to fund the construction of a spaceship to transport  a group of lucky humans to another planet. (Paramount)

Armageddon (1998) Ben Affleck, Bruce Willis and Liv Tyler star in this tearjerker about a group of oil drillers tapped by NASA to journey to an asteroid headed for Earth with the intent of splitting it apart by drilling a nuclear bomb into its core.   (AP)

2012 (2009) This ambitious film, starring John Cusack and Amanda Peet, centers on the much-hyped Mayan prophecy that the world will end in 2012. In the high-budget, critically-panned flick, a down-on-his-luck science fiction novelist tries to shuttle his family to safety as the world falls apart around them.<br> (Centropolis/Columbia Pictures)