I was taught and always believed our Solar System was at the edge in some spiral.
Correct.
Me too. That was based on the best data they had at the time. The instrumentation has improved a lot since then.
“I was taught and always believed our Solar System was at the edge in some spiral.”
And that location is thought to be critical for the existence of life as we know it - too close to the galactic center or heavily-populated parts of the spiral arms and the number of destructive nearby supernovae is so high that no higher forms of life ever have a chance to evolve; too close to the lightly-populated edges of the spiral arms and there are not enough supernovae to form the heavy elements needed for advanced life forms.
So not only is Earth in the “Goldilocks Zone” of our solar system, but that solar system is in the “Goldilocks Zone” of our galaxy.
Me too. What gives?