A temporary second Sun in 2012?

It makes one wonder, surely something like this must have happened in the distant past, and humans might have misunderstood what the heavens were saying.  In 2012, a red super giant star could completely collapse with a big explosion, unleashing so much light as to appear as bright as our own Sun.  Though it would last only a few weeks at most, it could provide Earth 24 hours of continuous light, assuming it is properly positioned opposite of the Sun at the time (think seasonal location of the Earth, in its orbit around the Sun).  Otherwise, it would simply look like two suns, much like Tatooine from Star Wars.

Cool, huh?

Oh, but don't bet the farm that it'll occur in 2012, or 2013, or even your lifetime.  Predicting when a star's going to go supernova is even tougher than predicting an earthquake.  No one could possibly know the time line for an exploding star -- it's not like astronomy has witnessed a series of exploding stars to understand the process.

And well, maybe it won't really be as bright as a second Sun.  More like a nice Jupiter.