Kayla it's because the things you see with a telescope are light years away and the light we're getting from them is that many years old. Like the light we get from the sun, meaning the sun you see, is 8 minutes old.
edit: also, respectfully, 100% not trying to be a dick, but referring to the US as a place not welcoming to outsiders is an extremely American centric point of view. As someone who has travelled a lot, works in a field very related to this subject, and whose family has 0 people born here, Americans and the laws of the US are generally very welcoming. While Trump was definitely a turn towards nationalism and race based xenophobia an immigrant, tourist, or foreign worker in the US is still much more likely to be accepted and have equal protection under the law than they would be in many other nations. The US has almost completely unrestricted citizenship by jus soli "just being born in the country", for example. I'm not going to name names but I've been to countries where a foreign woman literally can't step outside of a building or where a person whose ethnicity didn't match the majority would have to go to a dozen places before they would find one restaurant that would seat them.
I'm not saying the US is perfect or doesn't have major problems with racism or that you won't find examples to the contrary "the US is a place of 300million after all", but it is definitely not an unwelcoming place.
