Jason Watters wrote:
Would the physical laws that we have determined on earth apply everywhere
else in the universe?

Within our observable universe, the laws of physics are the same
"there" as "here".


Just as sound changes speed when it enters a different medium, could light
somehow be manipulated as it travels through space and cause stellar objects
to appear either much closer or much more distant than actual?


Everything we can measure is accurately modeled by either
relativity theory or the quantum mechanics. QM, SR or GTR
don't pretend to be theories of everything working is all
domains.

There has NEVER been a prediction of QM, SR or GTR that was
contradicted by an observation. NEVER! The reason I state
it that way is because we tell students that theories are
good until the are falsified by any single empirical
observation that counters the predictions of the theory.
Yet these theories QM, SR and GTR are remarkably correct
and useful.