Ran across this article that stretches the imagination.
Hubble Breaks New Ground with Discovery of Distant Exploding Star
01.11.12
These three images taken by NASA's Hubble Space Telescope reveal the emergence of an exploding star, called a supernova. Nicknamed SN Primo, the exploding star belongs to a special class called Type Ia supernovae, which are distance markers used for studying dark energy and the expansion rate of the universe. The top image shows part of the Hubble Ultra Deep Field, the region where astronomers were looking for a supernova blast. The white box shows where the supernova is later seen. The bottom left image is a close-up of the field without the supernova. A new bright object, identified as the supernova, appears in the image at bottom right. Credit: NASA, ESA, A. Riess (Space Telescope Science Institute and The Johns Hopkins University), and S. Rodney (The Johns Hopkins University) [source]First, it strains the mind to think that we are able to see an event that happened 9 billion years ago. Secondly, it begs the larger question: what does it look like now in that space? A lot could happen in 9 billion years.
The earth is estimated to be less than 5 billions years old. In 5 to 7 billion years more, the sun and earth will end... so no one... ever... will see what that space, where the supernova was, looks like today from our vantage. Of course, in 5 to 7 billion years everything will be different and in a different place.
Just go back to thinking about politics. It's a lot simpler.