The fate of the world is in the stars. Literally. Don't start checking your horoscope now.

Ok, basic astronomy check. The Earth revolves around the Sun. The Sun snakes its way through the Milky Way. We are near the outer rim of the galaxy.

Now zoom out a bit more. The Milky Way itself revolves on its own axis. That what makes that pretty little spiral pattern. Even while it revolves, it also speeds through outer space on its way to the Virgo Cluster, 50 million light years away.

Scientists believe that as the galaxy speeds its way through space, it creates a shock wave, much like what a supersonic jet would make, except the galaxy makes cosmic rays that can fry us all into space dust.

As the Milky Way revolves, the Solar System (with us in it) occasionally leaves the safety zone, and is exposed to these cosmic rays. This happens every 64 million years, which coincides - give or take a few million years - with some of the Earth's great mass extinctions, including the Permian extinction that wiped out 90% of all life on Earth.

Cosmic rays can cause genetic mutation - it could kill an entire species as easily as it could breed a new one. Cosmic rays are also known to be a cause of decreased ozone.

Another batch of scientists theorized earlier that the Solar System has an occasional "killer meteor season" as it travels across the Milky Way. If mankind doesn't kill itself off, the galaxy very well might.

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• Solar System's 'killer meteor season' killed off the dinosaurs
• University of Bristol studies Permian mass extinction event
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