Pi Man
When you say that there is no such thing a universal reference and you cite the apparently relative measures of acceleration and velocity you are partially right.

You are familiar with the twin problem that has one travel at the speed of light and the other stays on earth. If the two twins observed each other as one passed by the other in a space ship, each could describe their motions relative to each other, but it is by knowing the acceleration history which establishes a universal perspective and which would indicate which twin has the slower clock.

Also I guess by your disbelief that astronomers would not make that kind of mistake in perspective, I guess you are indirectly agreeing with me but just can’t believe that some guy on the internet has a better grasp of what is happening than what is published by the experts.

snowflake