The Sun isn't at the centre of our galaxy: it sits about 26,000 light-years from the core, in a minor structure called the Orion Arm. This outlying neighbourhood is fairly quiet, far from the crowded central regions where stars are packed tight and explosions are more common. That calm address may have helped life flourish on Earth.
A large share of Earth's water molecules formed in the interstellar cloud that existed before the Sun was even born, more than 4.6 billion years ago. You are literally drinking a cosmic fossil.
By day, the Martian sky looks butterscotch because of fine dust hanging in the air. But at dusk, those same grains scatter blue light forward, creating a bluish glow around the Sun. Rovers have photographed these blue sunsets: the exact reverse of what we see on Earth.