A few responses:
1. Gold Dragon -- the quasar was in the middle of our galaxy, where it is now. Information from the redshift curve and tracking the changes in the atomic 'constants' tells us that atomic processes were incredibly faster at the beginning of the cosmos (whenever that was, actually) than they are now. The light from the quasar would have reached us in seconds, therefore, but at the same time the atomic processes being so fast would have caused the quasar to be noticeably dimming by day four, when God lit the sun. The Bible tells us God stretched out the heavens. This is why the Big Bang was ridiculed with that name -- it was refused at first because it was too much like Bible! Nevertheless the data show that there was an expansion. Science thinks it is still going on, the Bible says not. Be that as it may, the initial expansion was rapid and enormous and invested the fabric of space with incredible potential energy. Just like a stretched rubber band will, when shot, go very fast at first and then slow down as the potential energy becomes kinetic energy, the atomic processes in the early cosmos were incredibly fast as that potential energy came pouring into kinetic energy. So the early stars literally blew up like balloons very quickly as their atomic processes produced the light that is still pouring out of them. That is why the population II stars are identified by the red giants, while the younger population I stars are identified in the spiral arms and are associated with the bluer color.
2. bapmom and Andy T., exactly. There was no death until Adam sinned. This includes physical death. The actual Hebrew phrase in God's warning to Adam about the tree was "In dying, you will die." Not knowing what to do with this phrase and not understanding it, most translators have said something like "you will surely die." But two deaths are implied. We know spiritual death came immediately -- separation from God. Physical death began at that point, as well, though, somewhere deep in the cells, perhaps as the production of something called telomerase was slowed down, meaning, in the long run, that cells would no longer be able to reproduce themselves indefinitely. Cancer cells still produce their own telomerase, and so they are 'immortal'. But we can't do that. Physical death began for Adam at that point, and so was very real.