system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: When astronomers discover significant events or objects, isn't it delayed by millions of years?

So it seems pretty obvious to me, but maybe I'm getting something wrong here. When an astronomer discovers events like a supernova, or a star or planet or galaxy, aren't they looking at millions of years in the past? 

For example, I recently read that a telescope can pick up signals more than 350 million light years away. But wouldn't that mean those signals took 350 million years to get to the telescope? So wouldn't that event be completely irrelevant at this point? 

Same with a planet.. if it were 100 million light years away, isn't it much more difficult for us to determine the *current* conditions? 

Does our limited understanding of space include anything current? Or are we just looking into the past?
gpt
Yes, something happening 350 million light years away would take 350 million years for us to see.  

However, that doesn't mean it's irrelevant.  Really the fact that it happens in the past is irrelevant.... it is so far away nothing will affect us.  It is still plenty useful for science, as we can use that data to predict the future of objects much closer to us.