8 MARCH 2021
More and more, it seems that the existence and persistence of life on Earth is the result of sheer luck. According to a new analysis of the history of the Milky Way, the best time and place for the emergence of life isn't here, or now, but over 6 billion years ago on the galaxy's outskirts.
That specific location in space and time would have afforded a habitable world the best protection against the gamma-ray bursts and supernovae that blasted space with deadly radiation.
As of about 4 billion years ago, the central regions of the galaxy (which include the Solar System) became safer than the outskirts - safe enough for life to emerge, if not quite as safe as the outskirts had been.