when telescopes look back at the start of the universe ( approx 13 billion years ) are we looking at ourselves ( or what would become the milkyway ) back then as well ?

Question

when telescopes look back at the start of the universe ( approx 13 billion years ) are we looking at ourselves ( or what would become the milkyway ) back then as well ?

In: Physics

Answer 1

No, light is still traveling more or less linearly. So we’re still looking across distance as well as time when we observe remote objects. To look at ourselves back then we’d have to move the observer to one of these distant points and look back