Short answer: according to a new supercomputer simulation of the universe, yes — and we're already living there. Astronomers at Durham University modeled how galaxies form across cosmic history, then layered on five different ways a planet's chances of hosting life can be wiped out. When they checked where our own solar system sits on that map, the answer came back about as good as it gets.
What did the simulation actually model?
The team used EAGLE (Evolution and Assembly of GaLaxies and their Environments), a cosmological simulation that tracks how gravity, gas, stars and black holes build galaxies across hundreds of millions of light-years. On top of that galaxy-formation model, the researchers — led by Luke A. Barnes, published October 5, 2026 in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society — added a second layer: a count of "habitable time," meaning how long stars in each part of each galaxy keep potentially habitable planets before something destroys the chance.
That "something" is one of five processes the paper treats as genuine extinction risks:
| Danger | What it does | |---|---| | Core-collapse supernovae | A massive star explodes, irradiating nearby systems | | Type Ia supernovae | A white dwarf detonates, with a similar effect over a wider radius | | Star–star interactions | Close stellar encounters disrupt planetary systems directly | | Gamma-ray bursts | Intense beams of radiation that can sterilize planets across a galaxy | | Quasar XUV radiation | High-energy radiation from a galaxy's actively feeding central black hole |
Where in a galaxy is it actually safe?
The simulation finds a genuine trade-off, not a simple "farther is safer" rule. Too close to a galaxy's centre, and core-collapse supernovae, star-star interactions and quasar radiation pile up — the paper states plainly that "the inner parts of galaxies are subject to the highest rates of extinction." Too far out, though, there's a different problem: the gas there never built up enough heavy elements to make rocky planets in the first place, since those outskirts are "too metal poor to produce habitable planets."
Habitable time is produced most efficiently in a band roughly 1 to 10 kiloparsecs from a galaxy's centre — far enough to escape the worst of the carnage, close enough to have the raw material for planets.
Where does that put our own solar system?
The paper gives the Sun's position precisely: a galactocentric radius of 8.2 kiloparsecs, which works out to 1.9 times the radius that contains half of the Milky Way's stars. In other words, we sit solidly in the outer half of the galaxy's stellar population, but still inside that productive 1–10 kiloparsec band — not at the dangerous core, not out in the metal-starved fringe.
The paper's headline number for how safe that spot has turned out to be: over the roughly 4.5 billion years since the solar system formed, only about one star in a thousand in today's Milky Way is expected to have actually suffered an extinction event from an explosion or stellar encounter. The present-day Milky Way, the authors conclude, is typical of the most efficient habitable galaxies — and small galaxies fare worse across the board, being "too crowded and too energetic" for their size.
What does "dangerous" actually look like?
A probability like "one in a thousand" is easy to read past. Two of the five hazards this study models have left visible evidence we've already written about on this site: the aftermath of a core-collapse supernova, and the crowded, tidally violent conditions near a galaxy's central black hole — exactly the inner-galaxy conditions this paper flags as the highest-risk zone, and exactly what the solar system's position, 8.2 kiloparsecs out, avoids. You'll find both stories, among everything else we've covered about the galaxy we live in, in the Solar System Live article index.
What's the takeaway?
This simulation doesn't find life anywhere — it maps opportunity, not detection. But it does something useful: it puts a number on a question that used to be pure speculation. Our address in the galaxy isn't a lucky accident that happened to dodge danger; it sits, statistically, close to the best neighbourhood a star like the Sun could occupy. For a sense of where the solar system fits in space right now, Solar System Live shows the local picture this study's galactic map zooms out from.