I still wonder if some of the light we are looking at hasn’t circled back on itself.
It’s been demonstrated that light’s path is impacted by gravity and therefore “curves”. If this is true as documented then light should have an orbit and therefore eventually circle back on itself.
The question then becomes which cycle of light are we looking at and not how far away is it.
Not an active theory, but one that I don’t think has been assessed.
Great. Now I have to consider circled back light in my thoughts.
I’ve wondered the same thing. We’re possibly not seeing billions of trillions of galaxies but the same trillions at different ages/inclinations. Imagine looking at your grandmother’s family album as she ages from infant to centenarian and thinking her photos are of different people.
I’m thinking similarly, perhaps gravitational lensing is at play. The distances are so great- I imagine it’s going to take a little time to get it figured out.