re: When the Sun was born...
I was always under the impression that all stars are born in thick molecular clouds, and that supernovae among young, massive stars are quite common, so they should frequently occur in these stellar nurseries. It is only later when these clouds and the open clusters that result from them disperse that the less massive, longer lived stars like are sun are scattered out into the galaxy. It should not be unexpected for older stars to have been in the presence of nearby supernovae early in their history. In other words, this should be no big news. Am I missing something?