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4 billion light years... I'm sorry, I know we have some great technology, but how the eff can they possibly guess that?
Generally the use the Cepheid Variable. EDIT - Sorry forgot the link. The Physics and Space subreddits are awesome, and NASA AMA's too. http://zebu.uoregon.edu/~soper/MilkyWay/cepheid.html
Not really surprising, we don't know jack about the Universe and who says our "Universe" is the only structure and not part of something bigger, possibly a Universe Cluster, etc.?
Dang. I'm so sorry, man. Join me in the quest to have her say that ALL THE TIME! *p*rn experiment thread... as your ClutchFan brother, I'd like to invite you. She's been saying it to me, though.