Astronomer: Earlier estimates of the distances of certain stars from Earth would mean that these stars are about 1 billion years older than the universe itself, an impossible scenario. My estimates of the distances indicate that these stars are much farther away than previously thought. And the farther away the stars are, the greater their intrinsic brightness must be, given their appearance to us on Earth. So the new estimates of these stars' distances from Earth help resolve the earlier conflict between the ages of these stars and the age of the universe. Which one of the following, if true, most helps to explain why the astronomer's estimates of the stars' distances from Earth help resolve the earlier conflict between the ages of these stars and the age of the universe? ['How bright celestial objects appear to be depends on how far away from the observer they are.', 'The brighter a star is, the younger it is.', 'New telescopes allow astronomers to see a greater number of distant stars.', 'The younger the universe is, the more bright stars it is likely to have.']