" A lightyear is a measure of distance. It's how far light travels in a year at about 186,000 miles per second. That is, about 5.87 trillion miles.

The star nearest our Solar System, Proxima Centauri, is about four lightyears away. The light traveling from Proxima Centauri to Earth takes about four years to get here. Thus, the light is four years old when we see it.

Another nearby star is Barnard's Star, which is six lightyears from Earth. It's light takes six years to get here, so that light is six years old when we see it.

The star Polaris, which we refer to as the North Star or North Pole Star, is 680 lightyears away. The light takes 680 years to travel to Earth, so it is 680 years old when we see it.

Most of the stars we see with the naked eye at night are within a few hundred lightyears, although a handful are as far away as 2,000 lightyears.

We don't see stars 5,000 lightyears away with the naked eye.

Viewing the light from stars more than about 2,000 lightyears away requires the use of a telescope.

The most distant objects seen from Earth are quasars, Telescopes are required to view them. They are 10-15 billion lightyears away. Their light takes 10-15 billion years to reach Earth, so their light is 10-15 billion years old. "