My understanding of the expansion of space itself is very shaky, but if space itself is expanding, then shouldn’t very very distant objects appear magnified?

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Yes. And they are! This is called the “Angular diameter distance turnaround” (or turnover). […] It’s illustrated in this xkcd comic. You can see nearby “galaxies” are large and bright, more distant galaxies are smaller, very distant galaxies are large, dim, and red.

Source: shouldn’t very very distant objects appear magnified?

Woah