Things in space being “xxxx lightyears away”, therefore light from the object would take “xxxx years to reach us on earth”

Question

I don’t really understand it, could someone explain in basic terms?

Are we saying if a star is 120 million lightyears away, light from the star would take 120 million years to reach us? Meaning from the pov of time on earth, the light left the star when the earth was still in its Cretaceous period?

In: 292

Answer 1

If you were able to look at a magical mirror that was 1 light year away, you would see yourself from two years ago. One year for the original image to travel to the mirror, and another year for that mirror image to come back to you