Our Sun is actually a cosmic refugee. Around 4.6 billion years ago, it first ignited in a hostile, radiation-blasted neighborhood 10,000 light-years closer to the Milky Way’s center than it is now.
For billions of years before reaching its current location, the Sun may have slowly travelled as part of a large group, or “wave,” of stars drifting out from the inner parts of the Milky Way. This ...