Is there a galactic 'Goldilocks zone'?
I'm thinking it wouldn't be much fun to be orbiting a star in close proximity to Sagittarius A, the black hole(s) at the center of our galaxy. Apart from dodging superluminal jets and gamma ray outbursts, the density of matter probably means that all those oort cloud objects would get disturbed from their nice stable orbits and pummel the inner solar system (great news for comet watchers! ;-) ).
Which got me thinking - there must be a goldilocks zone within a galaxy where a planet orbiting a star has a better chance at harboring life simply because it has sufficient distance from things that would cause extinction level events.
Has anyone else thought about this? I wonder how close you have to get to the center before the planet becomes 'uninsurable', as it were.
Markus
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