

The further you look in the sky, the further back in time you are looking as well – there is no way to see what far way looks like “right now”. This image shows the visible universe as it appears from our perspective in spacetime, which necessarily smears together the “where”, “what”, and “when” of it all, but also shows the evolution through time of some of the larger structures.
The tendril things that converge into single celestial objects are clouds of gas condensing to form galaxies and clusters over billions of years.





I may be wrong and lack any historical knowledge on the subject, but I think author is sarcastically self-identifying as a tankie?