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.

The Sun may have been part of a small group of stars that migrated from the core of our galaxy between 4 and 6 billion years ago.

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 ...

Now a pair of studies published today in Astronomy and Astrophysics argue that the sun did not make this journey alone. The telltale sign of the sun’s galactic journey is its chemical composition, ...

The Sun orbits in the thin disk of the Milky Way. It's located 27,000 light-years (8.3 kiloparsecs) from the Galactic Center, on the inner edge of the Orion spiral arm. It orbits around the galaxy ...