: Astronomers seem to know more about the galaxy now than when Marathon was
: produced, and thus more about the rest of the galaxy. From Solstation: ...
: the Sun is orbiting very close to the "co-rotation radius" of
: the galaxy, where the angular speed of the galaxy's spiral arms matches
: that of the stars within. As a result, Sol avoids crossing the spiral arms
: very often, which would expose Earth to supernovae that are more common
: there. These exceptional circumstances may have made it more likely for
: complex life and human intelligence to emerge on Earth ... fewer than five
: percent of all stars in the galaxy enjoy such a life-enhancing galactic
: orbit. Other astronomers point out, however, that many nearby stars move
: with Sol in a similar galactic orbit."
: And as for the central region, Solstation calls it the hot and violent
: center. And"... roughly 10 million stars are known to orbit within
: just a single light-year of the galactic center in a region known as the
: central bulge." That's getting close to the central black hole Sgr
: A*. So it seems to be a trade off between quantity and
: "quality".
Yeah,I was definitely writing "in universe" about the Pfhor heading corewards first. In the real universe, a galactic core is probably the last place you'd want to look for intelligent life. But it's always been a favorite spot for SF.
"If there's a bright center of the galaxy, you're on the planet that is farthest from it."