No offense, but you guys are trying to over simplify the structure of the universe here. Don't think of the universe before the Big Bang as a point-like singularity that contained all the matter and energy in the universe. That singularity also contained all of *space and time.* Similarly, don't think of the Big Bang as simply some cosmic firework that threw that matter out into empty space. Therefore, the Big Bang was also the beginning of the expansion of space and time.

Taking this a step further, approximating the expanding universe as the surface of a balloon works fine - in *two dimensions.* The catch is, the universe is *at least four dimensions.* It is physically impossible for the human mind to visualize a four-dimensional object. Our brains just aren't wired that way.

Anyway, if the Big Bang marked the expansion of space and time, then the universe has been steadily expanding for about 13 billion years. As the universe expanded, it cooled causing it to increasingly look more and more like it does now. If the universe cooled at the same rate (and there's no reason to assume it didn't), then stars should have formed at approximately the same time *everywhere in the universe.*

Think about that for a bit. This implies that stars throughout the universe are, in reality, on average the same age. However, keep in mind that light travels at a finite speed and takes a certain amount of time to reach us from distant objects. As such, we only see the light from distant objects that left them a long time ago. 13 billion light years away, there may be a star the same age as our Sun, roughly 5 billion years old. However, light from that star hasn't reached us yet - and won't reach us for another 8 billion years. The only light we'd be seeing at that distance would be the light that left there 13 billion years ago - shortly after the Big Bang.

-Taibak

PS: This link will take you to an older thread that might help too. http://www.badastronomy.com/phpBB/viewtopic.php?t=10616