Why on Earth do we not see older stars close to us?

[Martyn Arthur]

TL;DR Summary

Why then on Earth do we not see older stars close to us?

Phares as pragmatically as I can, thus leaving aside observational issues such as light speed, Universe expansion, moving apart galaxies and the Universe having no edge. Focusing on the fact that an observer on Earth looking deep into space can effectivly see the oldest stars formed during the creation of the universe. They are at tha point in time factually at a particular age.


At the same absolute point in time when both observers are insantaneously stationery, another observer in the same line of sight of those first stars, looking in the same direction positioned say midway between Earth and aforesaid stars, sees those same stars, of the same facual age, albeit she is a lot closer to them than Earth.

Why then on Earth do we not see older stars close to us?



Thanks
Martyn

 

[Orodruin]

At the same absolute point in time when both observers are insantaneously stationery, another observer in the same line of sight of those first stars, looking in the same direction positioned say midway between Earth and aforesaid stars, sees those same stars, of the same facual age,

No they do not. They will see those stars as they appeared later in their evolution and, beyond them, will see other stars at the beginning of the first stars igniting.

albeit she is a lot closer to them than Earth.

Precisely because they are closer, the observer will see them as they were at a later time.

leaving aside observational issues such as light speed, Universe expansion, moving apart galaxies and the Universe having no edge

If you want to talk about what is actually being observed, you cannot just disregard stuff that affects those observations. In particular the speed of light in this case.

 

[Drakkith]

Focusing on the fact that an observer on Earth looking deep into space can effectivly see the oldest stars formed during the creation of the universe.

We would see such a star as being, say, 1 billion years into its lifetime, whereas an observer that's closer to the star would see it as being older. A protostar that we observe from very far away might have already passed all the way through its main sequence and become a white dwarf for an observer close by.

Also, keep in mind that star formation is a continuous process. We see young stars as well as old stars here in our galaxy because our galaxy still supports star formation and the younger stars have been born more recently.

 

[Martyn Arthur]

Thank you for a brilliant answer to a dumb question for which I offer my apologies.
Thanks
Martyn