Some old (but important) news that has resurfaced:

"The formation of the Solar System was hurried along by a nearby gamma- ray burst, two astrophysicists in Ireland suspect. Rather than aborting the birth of planets, the flood of energy may have melted primordial dust grains, seeded the formation of meteorites and helped form the rocky planets, including Earth.

....calculate that a gamma-ray burst within 300 light years would have flooded the dusty disc circling the young Sun with enough energy to fuse up to 100 Earth masses of material into droplets that cooled into chondrules."

So we find ourselves asking:

• if the gamma ray burst can fuse material in such a way that planets eventually form, how would it affect us if it happened today?
• could it happen again in our lifetime?

There are more than 1,000 stars within 300 light years of Earth, with over 200 being closer than 30 light years, and the closest being just 4 light years from us. The galactic centre, at a distance of about 25,000 light years is outside of the nominated range.