  The discovery that the short-lived radionucleide iron-60 was present in the
oldest meteorites suggests that the formation of the Earth closely followed the
death of a massive star. I discuss three astrophysical origins: winds from an
AGB star, injection of supernova ejecta into circumstellar disks, and induced
star formation on the boundaries of HII regions. I show that the first two fail
to match the solar system iron-60 abundance in the vast majority of star
forming systems. The cores and pillars on the edges of HII regions are
spectacular but rare sites of star formation and larger clumps with masses
1e3-1e4 solar masses at tens of parsec from a supernova are a more likely birth
environment for our Sun. I also examine gamma-ray observations of iron-60 decay
and show that the Galactic background could account for the low end of the
range of meteoritic measurements if the massive star formation rate was at
least a factor of 2 higher 4.6 Gyr ago.
