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Originally Posted by AENeuman
Thanks for all the answers.
I guess I am having a hard time wrapping my head around the time=distance thing. I don't see why we couldn't discover that the galaxy next to us is the oldest.
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I see your question there. I think there may be specific answers in that we have some idea how old the galaxies in our portion of the universe are, and where to look to find older galaxies.
But I think the more general answer is that a galaxy closer to us could be older, but that we don't really know that. Whereas if we look at a galaxy 14 billion light years away we *know* for certain that it existed 14 billion years ago. If we look at one 100 light years away, we can't be certain whether it existed 14 billion years ago. If that makes sense.
I imagine that they understand our neighborhood of the universe enough to not really need the second point, but I think it answers your question most directly.