As this article says, http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/0 ... rb-us.html, a Wolf-Rayet star will go supernova sometime in the future and there's a chance that we might be on the path of the rays it will emit when it explodes.
They say it won't be very bad, although I don't think it will be a pretty sight if this thing has us in its sights. For a ~10 seconds blast, they estimate 25% of the ozone layer will be gone. But, as similar explosions can produce beams that last even for minutes in some cases, it won't be good at all if it's more than, say, 20 seconds long. On the low range of the estimates, it might even mitigate global warming .
Yet another reason to spread out into space one day...
EDIT: given the 8000LY distance, the beam might already be on its way to us.

Still though, if it's 8,000 Light Years away, it could explode now and we wouldn't have any need to worry about it for atleast 8,000 years since as far as we know nothing can travel faster than light. It's still scary stuff, and I do believe that for the overall survival of the human race we do need to expand into space, it's a shame however that space travel has been put on the back burner by essentially every major government on Earth.

It's funny in relation to the LHC and the so called "cosmic ray analogy" that these comic rays are described as being powerful enough to be extinction level, I guess the LHC only generates power similiar to the harmless cosmic rays and not the ones that are dangerous (according to thier logic).

Hopefully by 8,000 years in the future the human race will have finally gotten some level of intersteller colonization, but I guess that's just my hopeful side showing, sometimes I doubt as a species that we can actually work together enough to establish self sustaining colonies let alone populating other planets.

The only problem is that they are now seeing it as it was 8000 years ago.

However... due to relativity and the speed of light, as far as we are concerned, the star is still in one piece - there is no way we could get advance warning of it exploding anyway (using standard physics). Therefore, for all intents and purposes, we are seeing the star 'as it is now', as far as we are concerned.

The sun could have exploded 4 minutes ago, and we will still have 3-4 minutes left before we know about it

The light from the explosion would probably reach us first, unless there was absolutely nothing in the way of the explosion, which I find it hard to imagine that it won't pass through any stellar objects, still, the prospect is scary

Well, gamma rays and light are both radiation, traveling at the same speed. Of course, I don't know how their speed in different materials varies.
If the thing also expels gases, we'll have them much later. 1/1000 slower than the speed of light, and they'll reach us years later than the gamma burst.

This.

If it exploded 7999 years ago, we'll see it next year! If we are directly in line with one of the gamma ray bursts caused by the jets from the axes when it goes supernova, then we would have something to worry about.

The true irony as well is that by the time it did make it here I doubt we would even have the opportunity to research what happened, sometimes the odds against the survival of life on this planet are staggering to me.

The universe is violent and ever changing, yet our little corner of the Milky Way has stayed so safe for so long I think we all believe such scenarios to be unlikely that people think you're crazy when you even begin to suggest otherwise.

All the more reason to get out there and build asteroid colonies.

Just orienting them correctly, and you'd have the protection of multiple kilometers of rock or nickel/iron.

If we all stay on Earth for long enough, we're toast!

So let's say that a star 100 light years away went supernova 99 years ago. We don't know anything about it yet. Next year, we not only finally see it go supernova, but we get blitzed by the gamma rays from it at the same time, both reaching us at the same speed. I don't know what speed the material from the supernova expands, but let's say it travels at 0.9 times the speed of light... So the material from the supernova reaches us in 11 years time, 110 years after it went supernova. It would be quite strange to witness it approach us from 100 light years away in what would appear to be just 10 years... Hmmmmm

Anyway, which does the most damage... the gamma rays or the expanding cloud? I'd guess it depends...