Under the eaves of Central Asia's towering Hindu Kush Mountains lie the farthermost outposts of the British Raj's power in India, in the Northwest Frontier Province.
Though they resemble ordinary stars when viewed through optical telescopes, they are billions of lightyears away, the farthermost objects in the observable universe.
When the light we see today left the farthermost quasars, the earth and the solar system had not yet been born.