Why scientists say the protogalaxy "UDFj-39546284" is the most oldest object (13.37 billion years) in the universe ?

Question

My question is kinda complicated one. So please bear with me. My understanding may be wrong. Here's the question in brief:

We can observe the farthest objects in the observable universe, which are about 13.4 billion light years away from us (protogalaxy "UDFj-39546284" about 13.37 billion ly), formed after just 480 million years after the Big-Bang [http://www.space.com/10691-oldest-galaxy-discovered-hubble-space-telescope.html].

As per BBT, we know that the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. But, sciencists also claim that our home galaxy, the Milky-Way, is about 13.6 billion years old [http://www.universetoday.com/21822/age-of-the-milky-way/].

The universe is balooned (inflated) or expanded after event BB & suppose our Milky-Way is nearly sitting on the edge or on cosmological wavefront of expanding universe (as Milky-Way is 13.6 billion years old). And the most distant protogalaxy "UDFj-39546284" which is about 13.37 billion ly away, must be at the heart of the BB, should be newly born object.

Then why scientists say that this most distant object (protogalaxy UDFj-39546284) is the oldest one ? It should be youngest one, just born. Please explain in detail. Thanks.

? · Answer

I see where you're coming from. It's just how the language is used I guess. To be clear you could say that UDFj-39546284 is the galaxy we've seen in the most distant past.

Your idea of an "edge" of the expanding Universe is wide of the mark though. The Big Bang happened everywhere and there's no known edge of the Universe.

Anonymous · Answer

All galaxies started at roughly the same time. We're seeing our galaxy as it is now, not as it was back then. We're seeing this distant galaxy as it was back then.

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Why scientists say the protogalaxy "UDFj-39546284" is the most oldest object (13.37 billion years) in the universe ?

2 Answers